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Aug 3, 2015 - 6:00 AM With their NL East lead virtually erased, the Washington Nationals will try to begin their turnaround by continuing their recent dominance of the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Doug Fister will try to provide a boost Monday night by winning back-to-back starts for the first time this season, but the slumping Nationals lineup will have to face a pitcher seeking to open his career with three straight wins.

Washington's advantage over New York in the division is down to less than half a percentage point after a three-game sweep at Citi Field this weekend. Jordan Zimmermann gave up three homers in one inning in a 5-2 defeat Sunday, the Nationals' 10th in 15 games.

Washington (54-49) is hitting .203 with 15 runs in a 2-5 stretch and .121 with runners in scoring position. The Nationals plated just five runs in the series in New York.

"It didn't go our way this weekend, but we're fine," Zimmermann said. "We're going to bounce back and there's nobody in here that's panicking right now."

Washington will try to avoid its four-game losing streak since dropping a season-high six in a row in April by earning a 17th win in 22 games against Arizona (50-53). The Nationals took two of three at Phoenix from May 11-13 and have taken eight of the last nine matchups in the nation's capital, including a four-game sweep last August.

The up-and-down Diamondbacks head into Washington after dropping back-to-back games in Houston following a string of six wins, their longest streak in four seasons. Before that run, they dropped nine of 11.

Fister (4-6, 4.39 ERA) will try to send Arizona to another defeat by building on a 7-2 victory in Miami on Wednesday. He yielded two runs in six innings after going 1-5 with a 6.19 ERA in his previous seven outings.

Fister won four or more consecutive starts on three occasions last season en route to finishing a career-best 16-6 with a 2.41 ERA. He did not get a decision in a 5-1 victory against Arizona on May 14, 2014 - the lone matchup in his career - despite allowing one run in seven innings.

The right-hander will square off with Zack Godley (2-0, 2.25), who will seek to continue his auspicious start since being called up from Double-A on July 23 to take over for an injured Chase Anderson.

Godley, acquired from the Chicago Cubs in December in the Miguel Montero trade, tossed six scoreless innings in his MLB debut, an 8-3 win over Milwaukee on July 23. The righty then yielded three runs in six innings in an 8-4 victory in Seattle on Tuesday.

"The more you go out there the more comfortable you get and the more you get settled in," he told MLB's official website.

Anderson is the only Diamondbacks pitcher to win his first three major league starts, going 5-0 last season.

In his attempt to join that list, Godley will likely have to face NL MVP candidate Bryce Harper, who is hitting .440 in a seven-game hit streak against the Diamondbacks. Yunel Escobar is batting .452 in his past nine matchups, including a 5-for-5 performance in an 11-1 win May 11, but is hitting .179 in his last seven games overall.