(Sports Network) - Veteran right-hander Bronson Arroyo tries to restart a win streak when the Cincinnati Redshead to Washington today to close out a three- game weekend series with the Nationals at Nationals Park.
Arroyo had won four straight starts between May 10 and May 26 before dropping a 12-4 verdict at St. Louis on Monday, giving up 10 hits and seven runs in 4 1/3 innings. The loss upped his earned run average on the season to 4.92 after the 33-year-old had trimmed it from a season-high 7.43 down to 4.30 with his winning streak.
Prior to the last start, Arroyo's last loss came on April 23. In six intervening starts, he was 5-0 and pitched at least 6 2/3 innings in each outing, defeating Houston, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Cleveland and Pittsburgh.
He is 3-2 in six road starts this season and 3-1 in six career starts against Washington.
The Nationals answer with right-hander Craig Stammen, who'll meet the Reds for the first time in his 31st major-league start.
The 26-year-old - a native of Columbus, Ohio - has gotten three straight no- decisions since a 6-2 loss at St. Louis on May 17. His lone win of the season was April 19 against Colorado, when he scattered five hits and allowed two runs in eight innings of a 5-2 triumph.
In five home starts this season, Stammen is 1-0 with a 3.94 ERA in 32 innings.
On Saturday, Mike Leake spun seven solid innings and chipped in a pair of hits and a run scored as Cincinnati pulled away late in a 5-1 win to even this set.
Leake (5-0) yielded a lone unearned run on seven hits while fanning five and not issuing a walk for Cincinnati, which remained a game behind front-running St. Louis in the National League Central.
Orlando Cabrera had two hits, scored once and drove in a run, while Brandon Phillips had a hit, scored twice and knocked in a run for the Reds, who stopped a two-game slide and won for just a second time in their last six games.
Luis Atilano (5-2) was the hard-luck loser after yielding two runs, just one earned, on six hits while walking one and striking out a season-high six over a season-best seven frames for a Washington team that has lost four of its last five.
Cincinnati took two of three matchups from Washington last June in its lone 2009 trip to Nationals Park, but has lost eight of its 11 games as the visitor in this series.