Nationals Park: The History, the Dimensions and How the Park Plays

By 4Baseball Staff · November 5, 2026 · 9 min read

A guide to Nationals Park in Washington: the dimensions, the orientation and the open-air conditions that shape play, the four ballparks the franchise used before it, and the October games the park has hosted.

Nationals Park is the fourth full-time home of a franchise that began life in Montreal, and it is the one where that franchise has done most of its winning. Since the club moved in for the 2008 season it has won four division titles there, and in 2019 it won the first World Series in the history of the franchise. The park itself is a symmetrical, open-air, natural-grass ballpark with a capacity the site's reference data lists at 41,373, built beside the Anacostia River in southeast Washington. It plays as a fair park for most kinds of hitters and pitchers, and its character has more to do with weather and its views than with any odd corner.

This guide covers what the park is, how its dimensions compare, how the orientation and weather affect the game, which four ballparks came before it, and what the park has hosted in October. All of the statistics come from the historical record through the 2025 season, and the dimensions and capacity come from the site's own ballpark data. For any detail that changes, such as seating, rules for bags, ticket policies or food, check the club's official site before you go.

A franchise that has lived in four other parks

The Washington Nationals are the former Montreal Expos, who joined the National League in 1969 and moved to Washington for the 2005 season. The historical record lists the club's home parks by season, and the sequence is a short history of a travelling franchise.

The third entry is the odd one. In 2003 and 2004 the club played part of its home schedule in San Juan, Puerto Rico, at Hiram Bithorn Stadium, in addition to its Montreal games. Then the franchise moved to Washington and played three seasons at R.F.K. Stadium while the new park was built. The highest season attendance in franchise history, 2,731,993, was the first year in Washington, 2005, at R.F.K. Stadium; the best at Nationals Park, 2,652,422, is only slightly lower.

The Expos' story is told in the history of the Washington Nationals. The Hall of Famers with the longest stints with the franchise were Montreal players, led by Tim Raines (13 seasons), Gary Carter (12) and Andre Dawson (11), and none of them played a home game at Nationals Park.

When it opened and who played the first game

Nationals Park hosted its first regular season in 2008, which is the first season listed for the park in the historical data. The first regular-season game at the park ended with a walk-off home run by Ryan Zimmerman against the Atlanta Braves. Zimmerman is the franchise's career leader in home runs (284), hits (1,846), runs batted in (1,061) and runs scored (963), and he played his entire career for the club, from 2005 to 2021. That makes the opening game a fitting start to the park's history, and the park stayed his home for 14 seasons.

The ballpark sits in the Navy Yard area of southeast Washington, along the Anacostia River. The site's data places it at a latitude of about 38.87 degrees north and an elevation of 35 feet above sea level. That elevation is close enough to sea level that, unlike a park such as Denver's, the air does not thin enough to change how far a fly ball carries.

The dimensions, line by line

The site's reference data lists the park's distances as follows.

Read those numbers as a pattern. The two foul lines are within a foot of each other (336 and 335), so the park does not favor a pull hitter from either side. Center field at 402 feet is deep but not extreme. The one visible asymmetry is in the gaps: left-center is 7 feet deeper than right-center. That is a small difference, but it means a left-handed hitter who pulls the ball toward right-center faces a slightly shorter wall than a right-handed hitter who pulls the ball toward left-center.

For comparison, the site's data for loanDepot park in Miami lists 387 feet to right-center, which is 17 feet deeper than the 370 feet in Washington. Sutter Health Park lists 330 down the left-field line and 325 down the right-field line, which makes both lines between six and ten feet shorter than Nationals Park. Distances alone do not make a hitter's park, because wall height, foul territory and the weather matter, but if you are comparing two parks by shape, the right-center gap in Washington is one of its most hitter-friendly features. For the Miami side of that comparison, see the loanDepot park guide.

How the park plays

Nationals Park is a grass park with an open roof. That has three practical effects.

First, the playing surface behaves the way grass does: a ground ball on natural grass tends to be slower than on artificial turf, which generally helps infielders and ground-ball pitchers compared with a turf park. Second, because there is no roof, games can be delayed or postponed by rain, and heat and humidity in a Washington summer matter to how the ball travels and to how pitchers tire. A ball hit in warm, humid air carries somewhat farther than one in cool, dry air, although the effect is smaller than most fans assume. Third, wind can matter on any given night, since an open park lets the breeze work on balls hit to the outfield.

I will not give a park factor here because the number needs a multi-year sample and a method, and the historical record does not publish one. What the shape and the open air suggest is a park close to neutral, with a slight tilt toward left-handed pull power. If you use the park for fantasy decisions, check a current park-factor table from a statistical site rather than relying on shape alone.

Orientation and the sun

The site's data lists the park's azimuth, the compass direction from home plate to center field, as 28 degrees, which points north-northeast. That orientation has a consequence for day games and late-afternoon starts. In summer the sun sets in the northwest, so as an evening game goes on, the low sun is off the left-field side of the park, shining across the field toward the right side. Players may struggle to pick up fly balls for a short window, and fans on one side of the park face the sun longer than fans on the other.

The practical advice is the usual one: for a hot afternoon game, look at where the shade falls by seating section on the club's official site, bring sun protection, and expect shadows to creep across the infield during the first hours of an evening start. I am inferring this from the compass direction in the data, not from a measurement taken at the park, so treat it as a general guide.

The Octobers played here

The Nationals Park years are the franchise's playoff years. Before the move, the Expos reached October once, in the strike-shortened 1981 season, when they beat Philadelphia 3-2 in a division series and lost the NLCS to the Los Angeles Dodgers, 2-3. Since the move to Washington the club has won four division titles (2012, 2014, 2016 and 2017), all of them at Nationals Park, and one wild-card spot, in 2019.

In each of the four division-title years the club lost its division series, three of them in five games. The fifth try, in 2019, took the club through four rounds and ended with the franchise's only title. The World Series that year is remembered for a peculiar pattern: Houston won all three games played at Nationals Park, and Washington won all four of its victories on the road, so the road team won all seven games. That is a statement about the series, not about the park, and it is a reminder that a home-field edge is a tendency, not a guarantee.

The 98-64 record in 2012 is the best at the park, and the club's best winning percentage overall is the 74-40 mark of 1994, the strike-shortened season in Montreal. The Cy Young Awards of Max Scherzer in 2016 and 2017 and the Most Valuable Player award of Bryce Harper in 2015 all came in Nationals Park seasons. Harper hit .330 with 42 home runs that year, and Scherzer went 20-7 with 284 strikeouts in 2016.

Players who made the park's history

The club's leaders in the Nationals years are a short list. Zimmerman leads in the batting categories. Bryce Harper, with 184 home runs from 2012 to 2018, was the club's biggest star before he left. Juan Soto, with 119 home runs from 2018 to 2022, and Anthony Rendon, with 136 from 2013 to 2019 and a .290 career average with the club, were the supporting core of the 2019 team. Stephen Strasburg, who leads the franchise in strikeouts (1,723) and is second in wins (113), was the World Series MVP in 2019. Max Scherzer's 2.80 career ERA with the club is the best of any Nationals pitcher with at least 1,000 innings.

For the full position-by-position list, see the best players in Washington Nationals history. For the full season-by-season account of the Octobers, see the best Washington Nationals seasons and every October run.

The division around the park

The Nationals play in the National League East with Atlanta, Miami and the New York Mets, and the games against those three make up a large share of the home schedule. Miami's loanDepot park has a retractable roof and turf, so the Nationals play there in conditions very different from home. If you follow the division, the history of the Atlanta Braves, the history of the Miami Marlins and the history of the New York Mets show how each rival developed.

Planning a visit

A few general points, none of which depend on details that change.

• Check the official site first. Prices, entry rules, bag policies and gate times change from year to year, and the club's own site is the only reliable source.
• Plan for the weather. The park is open, so check the forecast. Rain can delay or suspend a game, and the club's site explains what happens to tickets.
• Think about the sun. Choose seats by when the game starts, and remember that the compass direction of the field means one side gets more late-afternoon sun than the other.
• Arrive early. The pregame period is when fans can see batting practice and the field, and arriving before the first pitch avoids rushing through the entrance.
• Look up local transit and parking before you go. Options change, and the official site and the city's transit authority publish the current ones.

The park also holds a fourth-inning mascot race known as the Presidents Race, a long-standing tradition, and the club's website lists other events on a game-by-game basis.

Common questions

When did Nationals Park open? The 2008 season is the first listed for the park in the historical record.

How big is it? The site's data lists a capacity of 41,373, with 336 feet down the left-field line, 402 to center and 335 down the right-field line.

Does it have a roof? No. The park is open-air, with a natural-grass surface.

Where did the team play before? In Washington, at R.F.K. Stadium from 2005 to 2007. In Montreal, at Jarry Park and then the Olympic Stadium, with some games in San Juan in 2003 and 2004.

Has the park hosted a World Series? Yes. In 2019 it hosted three games of the World Series that the Nationals won over Houston in seven.

Where to go next

To check the team's current record and the next game, see the Washington Nationals team page and the Nationals Park page. For related reading on the topic of ballparks and fan culture, the ballparks and fans topic page has more. The history of the World Series explains how the 2019 series fit into the long story of the championship.