Marshall, 23, had to leave after one pitch in the fifth inning because of a strained left oblique, and his status is day to day. The rookie left-hander gave up two runs on six hits over four innings, and then he threw one pitch, a ball, to Robert Fick leading off the fifth. Marshall finished that pitch in an odd way, and he was pulled.

For the second straight game, the Cubs had to go to the bullpen early. On Friday, starter Mark Prior lasted 3 1/3 innings.

Ryan Zimmerman hit a two-run go-ahead double in the fifth, and Alex Escobar added a two-run pinch-hit homer in the sixth to back Livan Hernandez (7-8).

Ramirez homered in his third straight game, connecting twice against Hernandez. With two outs in the first, Ramirez launched a 2-2 pitch into the upper deck at RFK Stadium for his 20th. He also homered with two outs in the fifth to give the Cubs a 3-2 lead.

It's the first time in Ramirez's career he's had back-to-back two-homer games, and he's the first Cub to have multihomer games in consecutive games since Derrek Lee did so May 27-28, 2005, against Colorado. Sammy Sosa was the last Cub to do so on the road, on May 1-2, 2002, at San Diego.

Ramirez now has hit at least 20 homers in four straight seasons, and he is batting .323 (21-for-65) in July.

After Ramirez's first blast, Phil Nevin hit a RBI single to make it 2-0 in the first. Jacque Jones tried to score from second on the hit, but he was thrown out at the plate by center fielder Luis Matos.

Austin Kearns led off the Washington second with his 17th home run. The Nationals tied the game in the third on Alfonso Soriano's RBI triple. Soriano tried to tally on Zimmerman's fly ball, but Jones threw him out at the plate.

This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.