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(Sports Network) - The Washington Nationals are off to a surprising start this season and will try to stay unbeaten this afternoon, when they shoot for a three-game series sweep of the defending NL East-champion Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park.

Washington defeated Atlanta on Sunday in its season opener at brand new Nationals Park before taking the first two contests of this set against the Phillies. In Wednesday's 1-0 victory, Nats starting pitcher Tim Redding hurled seven shutout innings of one-hit ball for the win.

Ryan Zimmerman belted his second home run of the season to provide the scoring for Washington, which opened a season 3-0 for the first time since 2003. The last time the franchise opened a campaign with four straight wins was back in 1983, when the team was located in Montreal. The Expos were led by Andre Dawson, Tim Raines and Gary Carter that year, and went 82-80 to finish third in the National League East.

Taking the ball for the Nationals this afternoon will be Jason Bergmann, who compiled a 6-6 record with a 4.45 earned run average in 21 starts last year.

Bergmann went 5-1 over his last 11 trips to the mound in 2007, while going 0-1 with a 4.18 ERA in five starts against Philadelphia.

The right-hander is 0-2 with a 3.86 earned run average through eight career appearances (five starts) versus the Phillies.

Philadelphia will try to avoid back-to-back 0-3 starts when it takes the field on Thursday. Phillies starter Cole Hamels was saddled with the loss last night after yielding Zimmerman's homer in the sixth inning. Hamels allowed five hits and struck out six batters in eight innings of work.

Pedro Feliz had the only hit of the night for the Phillies.

Jamie Moyer gets the nod for the Phillies in the finale against Washington. Moyer went 14-12 with a 5.01 ERA in 33 starts last year and finished with a 2-1 record over his final five starts of the 2007 regular season.

The 45-year-old lefty, who is entering his 22nd season and owns 230 career wins, posted a 2-0 mark with a 2.33 earned run average over three starts against the Nationals last season. Moyer is 6-4 with a 2.98 ERA in 15 lifetime games (14 starts) versus the Washington/Montreal franchise.

Moyer beat out second-year hurler Kyle Kendrick for the third spot in Philadelphia's rotation during the spring.

The Phillies won their season series with the Nats last year with a 12-6 mark, including a 6-3 record as the host.