New York, NY (WFAN)  -- The Mets western road trip continues as they head to Los Angeles to face the Dodgers and then it's back home to Shea to take on the Cincinnati Reds.

In 2007, the Mets made two trips to L.A. to play the Dodgers, taking three out of four games in the July series after being swept in the one in June. The Mets will be making a trip next month to Anaheim for an interleague match-up with the Angels but this is their only visit to Los Angeles. New York has only lost the overall season series against L.A. once (2002) since 1997.

The Dodgers are now managed by Joe Torre. The last time the Mets faced a National League team managed by Torre was in 1995 when he was the St. Louis Cardinals' skipper. The Mets took two out of three games at Shea against Torre's Cards in the series which was played on April 28, 29 and 30 of that season. Current Dodger Jeff Kent appeared for New York in two of the three games. Torre's overall record in games managed against the Mets is 92 and 73; 35-25 with the Yankees, 36-33 with the Cardinals and 21-15 with the Atlanta Braves.

The Mets will face another veteran manager in a new place this weekend when Dusty Baker and the Reds come to Shea. Baker has a lifetime managerial record vs. the Mets of 72 and 51; 14-10 with the Chicago Cubs and 58-41 while with the San Francisco Giants. Baker's clubs have only lost the season series to the Mets twice (1999 and 2005) in 14 years as a major league manager. In 2007, the Mets took three of the four games in the Reds' lone visit to Shea.

Last month, Marty Noble on MLB & Mets.com had a great article about the Mets grand slam drought. New York has not hit a slam since August 30th, 2006 when David Wright connected for one against the Rockies in Colorado. Wright's slam was a club record 10th that season. Since then, the Mets have allowed nine grand slams. Coming into this week, the Mets have now gone 222 games without a bases-loaded home run, a long dry spell but still 75 games shy of the longest stretch ever without a slam in club history. On July 4th, 1980, in the opening game of a holiday twi-night doubleheader against the Phillies at Shea, Lee Mazzilli belted an 8th inning grand slam against Larry Christensen, providing all the offense in the 4-0 Mets win. Nearly two seasons later on June 11th, 1980, Mike Jorgensen hit a game-winning slam off of the Dodgers' Rick Sutcliffe in the bottom of the 10th for a 6-2 victory--a span of 297 games. The Mets also went 279 games without a grand slam from 1964 to 1966. Jim Hickman (August 19, 1964 at Shea vs. Vern Law) and Eddie Bressoud (July 3, 1966 at Shea vs. Bob Veale) began and ended that stretch {thanks to retrosheet.org for the box scores and details on the slams}.

Nelson Figueroa, one of the feel-good stories of 2008 for the Mets, became the 11th New York City-born pitcher to start a game for the club, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. Figueroa's two wins with the Mets are already as many or more than three of the other NYC-born Met starting pitchers that preceded him and only one of the previous 10 posted an above .500 record while with the club. Here's a list of the 11 NYC-born Mets starting pitchers and their overall records with the team, ranked in order of victories:

Ed Lynch 38-40
Pete Falcone 26-37
Bob Shaw 14-19
Larry Bearnarth 13-21
Charlie Williams 5-6
Mike Bruhert 4-11
John Pacella 3-6
John Candelaria 2-0
Nelson Figueroa 2-1
Allen Watson 2-2
Frank Seminara 0-2

With the Reds making their last scheduled trip ever to Shea this weekend, here are some memorable Mets/Reds Shea moments:

The 1973 NLCS. Mets win Game 3, which features the Bud Harrelson-Pete Rose melee, lose Game 4 on Rose's 12th inning homer but win Game 5 and their 2nd N.L. title 7-2.

August 21, 1977. Tom Seaver makes his first Shea appearance against the Mets with the Reds and goes the distance for the win, striking out 11 in Cincinnati's 5-1 victory. July 24th & 25th1978. Pete Rose ties and breaks Tommy Holmes' N.L. consecutive game hitting streak record. Holmes, then a Mets executive, is on hand at Shea as Rose surpasses his 33-year old mark.

May 6th 1983. Darryl Strawberry makes his major league debut and scores a run on George Foster's game-winning three-run homer in the 13th in the Mets 7-4 win.

June 21st, 2006. Jose Reyes hits for the cycle in the Mets' 6-5 loss to the Reds. It's the 9th in Mets history and, including opponents, the 4th and perhaps final cycle ever at Shea.