(My Sportsbook) - Veteran righthander Livan Hernandez can all but close out the New York Mets' hopes at a wild card playoff berth when he and the Washington Nationals visit Shea Stadium for the last of a three-game series this afternoon.

Hernandez, the Cuban exile who burst on to the scene with the Florida Marlins in 1997, is 10-9 with a 4.41 ERA in 26 career appearances against the Mets. This season, he's faced New York three times, going 1-1 with a no-decision. The most recent outing was a difficult one, in which he lasted just two innings and gave up eight earned runs on seven hits in what became a 9-8 Nationals loss.

The Mets will send surprise ace Jae Seo to the mound in today's series finale. Seo, a 28-year-old native of South Korea, had won six straight decisions before surrendering eight hits and three runs over eight innings in a hard- luck 3-2 loss to St. Louis on September 9. He made his 2005 season debut against Washington on April 23, allowing six hits and one run over six innings in a 10-5 New York win.

He returned to face the Nationals again on August 19, tossing a splendid eight innings of four-hit ball while striking out five in a 1-0 Mets victory. Oddly, his previous nine appearances against the Washington franchise, then based in Montreal, had resulted in an 0-6 record.

The Nationals downed the Mets, 6-3, on Wednesday night, handing New York its second straight loss in the series and eighth in nine games. Washington is three games behind wild card co-leaders Florida and Philadelphia, while the Mets are 6 1/2 games off the pace.

In Wednesday's game, Preston Wilson and Vinny Castilla hit back-to-back home runs in the fifth inning off New York starter Kris Benson, giving the Nationals a two-run lead they never surrendered. Nick Johnson, who was 3-for-5 with two runs batted in for Washington, tacked on an insurance run in the ninth with an RBI double.

The Mets lead the season series, 8-7.