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Two five-game winners highlight Nats-O's matchup

May 20, 2011 - 2:52 PM (Sports Network) - Two pitchers both seeking their sixth win of the season square off tonight when Jason Marquis and the Washington Nationals face Jake Arrieta and the Baltimore Orioles in the opener of the Beltway Series at Camden Yards.

Marquis made just 13 starts for the Nationals a year ago, but has been tremendous for them this season, going 5-1 with a 3.54 earned run average. He won for the fifth time in his last six starts on Sunday against Florida, as the Marlins managed four runs (two earned) and six hits off of him in 6 2/3 innings.

"[The run support] allowed me some room for error with my mistakes," Marquis said. "The defense did a great job. It was a good team effort today."

Marquis lost his only other start against the Orioles back in 2008 and allowed seven runs in four innings of that one.

Arrieta, meanwhile, has won his last four decisions and is 5-1 with a 4.03 ERA. He beat the Tampa Bay Rays on Sunday, holding them to a pair of runs and four hits in six innings. He also struck out seven.

"He had great stuff early," Orioles manager Buck Showalter said. "Hopefully, he'll get to a point where he can kind of maximize his pitches a little bit more and get deeper." '

Arrieta did not get a decision against the Nats last season, but gave up six runs (five earned) and eight hits in 4 1/3 frames.

Both teams enter this matchup on the heels of getting swept by New York teams, as the Nationals lost both ends of their two-game set to the Mets, while the Orioles dropped two in a row to the Yankees, including a 13-2 drubbing on Thursday.

One night after Wednesday's 15-inning marathon loss, Showalter again had to tax his bullpen on Thursday, as Brad Bergesen failed to get out of the fourth inning, allowing eight runs in just 3 1/3 innings.

"Tonight, my misses were in the middle of the plate and (I) just wasn't able to get anything going," Bergesen said.

Baltimore has now lost three straight and four of its last six.

The Nationals lost for the fifth time in seven chances on Thursday, falling to the Mets, 1-0.

The Nats stranded a runner on third in the ninth. Francisco Rodriguez gave up a one-out double to Laynce Nix. Jayson Werth then hit a sharp grounder to third. Justin Turner made a great backhanded stop and threw the ball to first for the second out, but replays showed that first baseman Daniel Murphy was clearly off the bag. Nix went to third on the play, but Rodriguez got Adam LaRoche to ground out for his 14th save.

"We have to do more. We can't have [three] hits and get shut out two days in a row," Nationals manager Jim Riggleman said. "We are better than that. We are going to have to do better than that."

Baltimore won four of the six meetings in this series a year ago and is 8-4 over the past two seasons with five of the victories coming at Camden Yards.