Clem's Baseball home

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.


2005: The Nats' Honeymoon Year in Washington

The Nationals' inaugural season in Our Nation's Capital turned out better than even the brightest optimists could have imagined, sparking a mutual love affair between players and fans. The team had amazing success, rising to a commanding lead in the National League Eastern Division during a ten-game winning streak in June, before falling back in July. They finished the season at an even .500, 81-81, but it was still last place in the division. The 2.7 million total attendance at the Nats' home games exceeded their target by 300,000, and their 33,584 average attendance was more than 3 ½ times the attendance at Expos games in Montreal and San Juan in the previous year. This laid to rest doubts about baseball in Washington.

Usual starting positions, 2005
CF: Brad Wilkerson .248
Preston Wilson
LF: Marlon Byrd .264
Ryan Church
RF: Jose Guillen * .283
SS: Cristian Guzman * .219 2B: Jose Vidro .275
3B: Vinny Castilla * .253
1B: Nick Johnson .289
Batting average for position players, ERA for pitchers.
Manager: Frank Robinson
C: Brian Schneider .268 * (asterisk): new player  
Nationals' head-to-head matchups, 2005
OpponentWinsLosses
ARI42
ATL910
BAL00
BOS00
CHC51
CHW00
CIN15
CLE00
COL42
DET00
HOU25
KC00
LAA21
LAD42
FLA99
MIL44
MIN00
NYM811
NYY00
OAK30
PHI811
PIT51
SD15
SEA30
SF33
STL24
TB00
TEX12
TOR33
Total8181

Nationals, 2005: month-by-month summary
Month Wins Losses NL East place
(at end)
Number of
home games
Total
attendance
Average
attendance
April 2005 13 11 3rd 12 371,408 30,951
May 2005 14 14 3rd 10 333,284 33,328
June 2005 20 6 1st 17 562,951 33,115
July 2005 9 18 2nd 11 412,001 37,455
Aug. 2005 13 15 5th 12 439,619 36,635
Sept.* 2005 12 17 5th 19 601,059 31,635
2005 TOTAL 81 81 5th 81 2,720,322 33,584

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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