St. Louis Cardinals vs. Washington Nationals Watch FREE: MLB Online Streaming on Monday Night at 8:10 PM ET Sunday Night from Nationals Park, Is Bryce Harper in Trouble?

Stephen Strasburg has been less than impressive to start the season, though he's looked better at home than on the road -- just like last year.

The Nationals hope that trend continues for Sunday's series finale against the Cardinals.

Strasburg (1-2, 6.00 ERA) is coming off his worst performance thus far, giving up six earned runs and eight hits with three walks over four innings of an 11-2 loss at Miami on Tuesday. He had limited the Marlins to one run and three hits while striking out 12 in 6 2/3 innings at home five days earlier in his lone win of the season.

The right-hander owns a 9.00 ERA in two road starts and 3.27 in two outings at Nationals Park. Strasburg was 3-5 with a 4.50 ERA at home last year, compared to 5-4 and 1.73 on the road.

All six runs against him Tuesday came in the first two innings.

"I think for me, if I can get through the first couple innings unscathed I'm pretty much able to shut the door from there," Strasburg told the team's website. "...I can live with a couple runs here or there in the first, but that (home run) put me behind the eight ball."

The Nationals (10-8) could use a dominant outing from Strasburg, 0-1 with a 2.08 ERA in two starts against St. Louis, given their defensive woes this season and offensive struggles in this series. They've totaled six runs and 15 hits through the first three games and are hitting .163 while dropping nine of their last 10 regular-season meetings with St. Louis.

Adding to their problems was what manager Matt Williams described as a "lack of hustle" from Bryce Harper when he nonchalantly ran out a comebacker to the mound in the sixth inning. Williams pulled Harper from the game, though Harper didn't appear to have a problem with it, later saying he respected his manager's decision.

"He and I made an agreement, this team made an agreement, that when we play the game, that we hustle at all times," Williams said.

The game will be live streaming at gofirstrowus.eu/sport/baseball.html‎