The New York Mets and Miami Marlins will do battle this weekend in a critical series that has ramifications on both the NL Wild Card and the NL East Division race. Here are a few things to know ahead of this weekend’s series which begins tonight.

• The Mets trail the Marlins in the NL East standings by 1.5 games for second place and are 1.5 games behind the Marlins for the final NL Wild Card spot.

• The Mets hold a 5-4 record against the Marlins this season in nine meetings so far.

• The Mets are also 2-1 at Marlins Park this season, outscoring the Marlins 12-7.

• Friday night starter Logan Verrett is 0-0 with a 0.69 ERA in three career games (two starts) against Miami, with 10 strikeouts in 13 innings. All three appearances however occurred at Citi Field.

• Saturday night starter Jacob deGrom holds a career 1.89 ERA at Marlins Park in 19 innings pitched. It’s his lowest ERA at any visiting ballpark with a minimum of three starts.

• Yoenis Cespedes holds a .367 average with two home runs and nine RBI’s in 11 games at Marlins Park. It’s his second highest average among any MLB park he’s played at with a minimum of 10 games played.

• Jose Reyes will play the Marlins for the second time (first time in Miami) since being traded away back in November of 2012. He originally signed a six-year $106 million deal back in December of 2011 with the Marlins that he is currently still playing under.

• Marlins outfielder Giancarlo Stanton has turned into a bonafide Mets killer with 26 HR’s and 58 RBI’s in 83 career games against the Mets.

• The Mets will face Marlins ace Jose Fernandez on Saturday night, who has notoriously stymied them. Fernandez holds a 2-0 record in five career starts with a 1.32 ERA and 46 strikeouts in 34 innings.

• Marlins outfielder Ichiro Suzuki as of today is just four hits shy of the 3,000 hit milestone.

• The pitching matchups for this weekend are provided below: