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The
Washington Nationals:
Annual History *



hand point * This interactive Web page presents detailed year-by-year historical data that were formerly displayed altogether on the Washington Nationals page. That page now only shows detailed data for the current year, as well as historical annual summary data. Click on the years listed below to get the respective annual data.


2008: "Welcome home" to the new stadium

Nationals Park had a storybook Opening Day on March 31, when Ryan Zimmerman hit a memorable walk-off home run. The Nats soon fell into a nine-game losing streak, however. Even though infielders Nick Johnson and Cristian Guzman returned to the lineup, the team roster was depleted by further injuries in April and May. Dmitri Young had diabetes-related weight problems, and did not play much. Things went from bad to worse in July, when the Nats only won five games, setting a team record. After a brief upsurge in early August, the Nationals endured their longest losing streak yet, 12 games. Later in the month they rebounded again, but lost nine of their last ten games. Not a good way to begin the new era in Nationals Park.

Usual starting positions, 2008
CF: Lastings Milledge * .268
LF: Willie Harris * .251
Wily Mo Peña *
RF: Austin Kearns .217
Elijah Dukes *
SS: Cristian Guzman .316 2B: Felipe Lopez .234
3B: Ryan Zimmerman .283
1B: Aaron Boone * .241
Nick Johnson
Batting average for position players, ERA for pitchers.
Manager: Manny Acta
C: Jesus Flores * .256
Wil Nieves *
* (asterisk): new player  
Nationals' head-to-head matchups, 2008
OpponentWinsLosses
ARI24
ATL126
BAL33
BOS00
CHC33
CHW00
CIN34
CLE00
COL34
DET00
HOU24
KC00
LAA12
LAD33
FLA314
MIL26
MIN03
NYM612
NYY00
OAK00
PHI612
PIT43
SD15
SEA30
SF07
STL15
TB00
TEX12
TOR00
Total59102

Nationals, 2008: month-by-month summary
Month Wins Losses NL East place
(at end)
Number of
home games
Total
attendance
Average
attendance
April 2008 11 17 5th 14 418,834 29,917
May 2008 13 16 5th 14 397,058 28,361
June 2008 9 17 5th 16 493,251 30,828
July 2008 5 19 5th 9 273,305 30,367
Aug. 2008 14 15 5th 15 436,388 29,093
Sept.* 2008 7 17 5th 12 301,504 25,125
2008 59 102 5th 80 2,320,340 29,004

SOURCE: My unofficial daily tabulations from MLB Gameday stats, Washington Post, and other newspapers.
* Asterisks indicate the data include March (for April) or October (for September).


Nats winning percentages

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