New York, NY (WFAN)  -- The Mets close out the month of April, as well as the current homestand, against the Pittsburgh Pirates before heading west to take on the Arizona Diamondbacks.

This is the final trip ever to Shea for the Pirates who were the Mets first ever opponent in Flushing 44 Aprils ago. New York has taken nine of its last 12 home games with Pittsburgh over the past three seasons after being swept at Shea by the Pirates in 2004.

Ex-Met, Xavier Nady had his 14-game hitting streak snapped on Sunday. Nady leads Pittsburgh with 23 runs batted in, the most by a Pirate in the month of April since Jeff King drove in 23 in 1996. Willie Stargell drove in 27 runs in April of 1971, the most by any Bucs player in the opening month of the season. Nate McLouth began the season for Pittsburgh with a 19-game hit streak, one better than the previous longest by a Pirates player from the start of a season--Al Oliver's 18 game streak in 1972. Pittsburgh's new manager is John Russell, who played for the Phillies, Braves and Rangers in the majors from 1984 thru 1993. Russell hit his first major league home run against the Mets' Ron Darling on June 25th, 1984 at Veterans Stadium. It was a pinch-hit homer in a 10-5 Mets win.

Russell hit one other home run vs. the Mets on June 21st, 1987 against Terry Leach at Shea in an 8-3 Mets victory. Russell is also one of the seven different catchers who caught one of Nolan Ryan's no-hitters. Russell was behind the plate for Ryan's 6th no-hitter on July 11th, 1990 vs. the Oakland A's. Russell homered in that game and Willie Randolph made the final out for Oakland. The other six catchers who handled Ryan's no-hitters were: Jeff Torborg, Art Kusyner, Tom Egan and Ellie Rodriguez (with the Angels), Alan Ashby (with the Astros) and Mike Stanley (with the Rangers).

This weekend, the Mets face the N.L. West leading Diamondbacks in Arizona. The Mets defeated the eventual Western Division Champs three out of four times they faced them at Chase Field in 2007. The D'Backs' 3-1 win in the finale of that series snapped a 13-game winning streak for the Mets in Arizona, a streak in which they outscored the D'Backs 104-29 in their home ballpark.

According to Baseball Digest's Bill Deane, the Diamondbacks last season became just the 5th team in major league history to post a winning percentage of .550 or better despite being outscored by their opponents. The other four clubs to accomplish this were: the 1932 Pirates, the 1981 Orioles (in the strike season), the 1997 Giants and the 1984 New York Mets. Deane also points out the amazing offensive year that D'Backs pitcher Micah Owings, who the Mets will face this weekend, had in 2007. Owings went 8 and 8 with a 4.30 ERA on the mound but at the plate had 20 hits, seven doubles, four homers and 15 rbi's with a .333 batting average and a .683 slugging percentage, the best by any pitcher ever which broke the record set back in 1899 by Piano Legs Hickman.

With this week's final scheduled trip ever by the Pirates to Shea, here are some of the most memorable Pirates/Mets moments in Shea Stadium history:

• 4/17/64 Pirates beat the Mets 4-3 in the first game ever played at Shea Stadium. Two days later, the Mets blank Pittsburgh 6-0 for their first ever home win at Shea.


• 9/20/69 Bob Moose no-hits the Mets 4-0, the second and, to date, last no-hitter ever thrown at Shea.

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• 9/20/73 The "Ball-on-the-Wall" game. Richie Zisk is thrown out at the plate when Dave Augustine's 13th inning flyball, which looks to be a two-run homer, caroms instead off the top of the left field fence. The Mets go on to a pivotal 4-3 win during their stretch run.


• 9/12/84 Dwight Gooden breaks Herb Score's rookie strikeout record by fanning Marvell Wynne in the 6th inning in a 2-0 Mets win.


• 10/3/99 Melvin Mora races home on Brad Clontz' wild pitch giving the Mets a 2-1 win as the Mets force at least a playoff for the N.L. wild card in the 162nd game of the 1999 season.