Cubs-Nationals Preview

Following just their second loss in 12 games, the Chicago Cubs look to remain above .500 and avoid settling for a four-game split with the last-place Washington Nationals on Thursday.

Chicago (42-41) got above .500 for the first time since April 7 with a 7-2 win over Washington (34-50) on Monday in the series opener. The Cubs followed with a 3-1 victory Tuesday for their 10th win in 11 contests, but lost 6-0 on Wednesday as Rich Hill surrendered two homers, including a grand slam to Dmitri Young in the fifth inning after intentionally walking Ryan Zimmerman.

"We tried to set up a double play," Cubs manager Lou Piniella said. "The shortstop doesn't play in the bullpen. (Young) had two strikes and (Hill) hung him a curveball."

This is the final meeting with Washington this season for the Cubs, who are looking to keep pressure on NL Central-leading Milwaukee. Chicago has won five of six games against the Nationals, holding them to a .227 batting average.

Sean Marshall (4-3, 3.50 ERA) hopes to continue his own success against Washington while bouncing back from his shortest outing of the season. The left-hander has not faced the Nationals since his 2006 rookie season, when he went 1-0 with a 1.80 ERA against them.

Marshall is coming off his first loss in six starts, throwing only two innings as he was tagged for seven runs and seven hits in a 13-4 loss to Milwaukee on Saturday.

"They put some pretty good swings on some mistakes I made," said Marshall, who was 4-0 with a 2.32 ERA in his previous five outings.

The Nationals, who have lost seven of nine and remain at the bottom of the NL East, will counter with Jason Bergmann (1-5, 3.47). The right-hander is looking to avoid losing for the third time in as many starts since spending six weeks on the disabled list with elbow inflammation.

After returning to pitch four innings of one-run ball in a 4-1 loss at Atlanta on June 25, Bergmann was tagged for a season-high six runs and eight hits in four innings of a 7-2 loss at Pittsburgh on Saturday.

"I'm disappointed," Bergmann said. "I didn't have a feel for any one of my pitches. Each one of my breaking pitches let me down at one time or the other when I really needed it. It's just command of my pitches that I really need for next time."

Bergmann, though, was outstanding in his last start at home on May 14, carrying a no-hitter into the eighth inning before settling for a 2-1 win over Atlanta. He finished with a career-best 10 strikeouts, allowing one run and two hits in eight innings to get his first career win as a starter.

Bergmann, who is 1-2 with a 3.24 ERA in four starts at RFK Stadium this year, did not fare as well in his only start against the Cubs on May 4 at Wrigley Field. He gave up five runs and eight hits, including a two-run homer to Derrek Lee, in six innings of a 6-4 loss.

Lee is on a 29-game home-run drought, his longest since going a career-high 34 straight games without a homer from May 11-June 23, 1998, with Florida. The All-Star first baseman is batting .286 during the current stretch -- he's hitless in 10 at-bats in this series -- while dropping his season average from .361 to .334 to fall to second in the NL behind Colorado's Matt Holliday.

"You want to hit the ball out of the ballpark, and I haven't done it," Lee told the team's official Web site. "I don't know the reason behind it. I'd like to hit some home runs. I have to try to find that stroke. I'm not driving the ball out of the ballpark, it's that simple."