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(Sports Network) - Lefty Ted Lilly can build on his best outing of the season today when the Chicago Cubs visit pristine new Nationals Park for the final installment of a three-game weekend series with the host Washington Nationals.

Lilly, a 15-game winner in each of the past two seasons, got off to a rocky beginning in 2008, picking up a no-decision and three losses in his first four starts.

He began righting the ship the last time out, however, allowing four hits and a run in six strong innings of an 8-1 Cubs defeat of the New York Mets on April 22.

Lilly is 3-2 with a microscopic 2.06 earned run average in six career starts against the Nationals, allowing 27 hits and eight earned runs in 35 innings, with 13 walks and 37 strikeouts.

Washington counters with young New York-born left-hander John Lannan, whos making the 11th start of his big-league career.

Lannan, born in 1984 in Long Beach, was 2-2 in six starts with the Nationals in 2007 and dropped his first two starts of 2008 before rebounding for a no- decision and a win in his last two outings.

In those outings, against the New York Mets and Atlanta Braves, hes given up just eight hits and a run in 13 innings.

An 11th-round draft pick in 2005, Lannan has never faced the Cubs.

On Saturday, Carlos Zambrano tossed seven shutout innings, and Derrek Lee went 2-for-3 with three runs batted in, as the Cubs blanked Washington, 7-0.

Zambrano (4-1) surrendered five hits and four walks, while striking out five. In his past three starts -- all wins -- the right-hander has given up three runs and 18 hits in 21 innings.

Aramis Ramirez finished with two doubles and a pair of RBI, while Ronny Cedeno also doubled twice for Chicago, which snapped a two-game skid in the second contest of a three-game set against the Nationals. Mark DeRosa went 2-for-5 and drove in a pair of runs for the Cubs.

Chicago also earned its 16th win of April, matching the club's all-time record for wins in the month, set in 1969.

Matt Chico (0-5) struggled in four innings of work, giving up five runs on eight hits, and saw his ERA balloon to 6.68.

Felipe Lopez had two of Washington's six hits, while Cristian Guzman doubled for the Nationals, who had a two-game win streak stopped.

Chicago won six of its seven matchups with the Nationals last season, including three of the four played as the road team in the series.