Washington Nationals Find New Life in Their Team

The Washington Nationals is a professional baseball team that plays for the Eastern Division of the American League. Founded in 1969 in Montreal, Canada, they started playing baseball as the Montreal Expos. Part of a baseball expansion franchise, they moved on to Washington in 2005 and became the Nationals. Then, in 2008, they moved into the newly-built Nationals Park. The stadium is located in Southeast D.C. and has views of the Capitol. As the Montreal Expos, the team experienced very little success. They are one of only four teams to have never played in a World Series. In 1981, they did win their Division and advanced to the National League Championship Series, but did not continue any further.

The Nationals have seen new life come to their game in August. After they released under-performing veterans Paul LoDuca, Felipe Lopez and Johnny Estrada at the end of July, they began to play like a big league club again. They produced clutch hits, they hustled, and they got good relief pitching. The pitching staff was able to hold a four run lead and went on to beat the Cincinati Reds 4-2 in July, sweeping the three-game series. This delighted their crowd of 32,939. "We played real good baseball this series." Nationals player, Lastings Milledge, said, "We scored a lot of runs, but our defense has been superb these last three games. That's what we need."

Although the team has struggled to attract fans to their new stadium, the Nationals could get a boost with the new way the team is performing.