The so-called Battle of the Beltways this weekend at Nationals Park has been a tad one-sided, as the Baltimore Orioles (27-14) have come to Washington and taken the first two games of the three-game set, with the third and final matchup scheduled for 1:35 p.m. ET on Sunday. Baltimore has no won five straight games, including nine straight victories on the road.
The Nationals (23-17) hope Stephen Strasburg (3-1, 2.25 ERA) can shut down Baltimore on Sunday afternoon. The young righthander is among the National League leaders in ERA and strikeouts, though he is coming off his roughest outing of the year, allowing four runs in four innings to the San Diego Padres on Tuesday in a 6-1 loss.
Baltimore will run pleasant surprise Wei-Yin Chen (4-0, 2.45) out to the mound on Sunday. The 26-year-old rookie from Taiwan has allowed two runs or less in six of his seven starts this season.
We'll have plenty more on this series throughout the weekend here on SB Nation DC, so keep it locked to this StorySteam for all the latest news and updates as they become available. For more on this series and all things Washington Nationals baseball, please head over to Federal Baseball. You can also check out Camden Chat, SB Nation's Baltimore Orioles blog, for some perspective from the other dugout. As always, check out the SB Nation Major League Baseball hub page for more infer on this and all MLB series.