(Sports Network) - Chien-Ming Wang returns to a major league hill for the first time since 2009 this evening when the Washington Nationals open a three- game series against the New York Mets at Nationals Park.
After winning 19 games in 2006 and '07, Wang's once promising career was derailed by injuries. In fact he has won just nine times in 27 appearances since the start of the 2008 campaign.
He joined the Nationals before last season on a one-year deal, but did not pitch for them. Wang then re-signed with Washington this offseason.
Wang began a rehab assignment with Single-A Hagerstown on June 27 and pitched for Potomac on July 2, Double-A Harrisburg on July 7 and July 14 and Triple-A Syracuse on July 19.
He allowed five runs in five innings at Syracuse on July 24 in his final rehab game, striking out five batters and walking one.
Wang has never faced the Mets.
On Thursday in Washington, Emilio Bonifacio extended his MLB-best hitting streak to 26 games and the Florida Marlins completed a three-game sweep of the Nationals with a 5-2 victory in the series finale.
John Lannan (7-7) went 5 2/3 innings, allowing four runs on five hits and four walks in the loss.
Jayson Werth went 2-for-4 and knocked in both of Washington's runs as the Nationals dropped their fifth straight game.
The Mets, meanwhile, played their second straight game without traded outfielder Carlos Beltran in the lineup and made it four straight wins overall when Lucas Duda and Jason Bay hit three-run doubles in a 10-9 victory over the Cincinnati Reds to complete a sweep at Great American Ball Park.
The Mets banged out 11 hits, six for extra bases, in Wednesday's 8-2 win when the Beltran deal was first announced, and on Thursday were even more potent with 14 hits.
Bay finished 3-for-4 and Duda was 2-for-4, while David Wright and Angel Pagan each had three hits for New York, which built a 9-3 cushion after five innings and withstood a Cincinnati comeback.
The offense made a winner of Chris Capuano (9-10) for the first time since July 4. He had lost three straight starts and didn't pitch particularly well on Thursday, allowing six runs on eight hits in 5 1/3 innings.
Heading to the hill for them tonight will be Dillon Gee, a 25-year-old from Texas, who has won nine of 12 decisions in his second taste of the big leagues after going 2-2 in five starts last season.
He won his initial seven decisions of 2011 and is 2-3 in seven starts since early June, including a 4-2 decision over St. Louis on July 19 with seven innings of three-hit, two-run ball.
He got a no-decision in one subsequent outing, a 5-4 Mets loss at Florida.
Gee has won both career starts against the Nationals while allowing a run on four hits in 14 2/3 innings.
The Mets have won five of eight from the Nats this season.