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2008 Washington Nationals season

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2008 Washington Nationals
File:Nationals 133x100.png
DivisionEastern Division
BallparkNationals Park
CityWashington, D.C.
OwnersLerner Enterprises
ManagersManny Acta
TelevisionMASN
WDCA (My 20)
RadioWWWT
← 2007 Seasons 2009 →

The Washington Nationals' 2008 season was the fourth season for the franchise in the District of Columbia, and the 40th since the original team was started in Montreal, Quebec, in 1969. It also marked the first season the Nationals played at Nationals Park. The team finished in last place in the National League East with a record of 59–102, the worst record in Major League Baseball.

Offseason

On November 30, 2007, the Nationals traded Ryan Church and Brian Schneider to the New York Mets for Lastings Milledge.[1] On December 3, 2007, they traded minor-leaguer Glenn Gibson to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays for Elijah Dukes,[2] and on the following day they traded Jonathan Albaladejo to the New York Yankees for Tyler Clippard.[3]

Spring training

The Nationals held their 2008 spring training in Viera, Florida, with home games played at Space Coast Stadium.

Regular season

March

President George W. Bush throws the ceremonial first pitch before a sold out crowd at the Washington Nationals' season opener on March 30, 2008

The Nationals opened the 2008 MLB season by hosting the Atlanta Braves in a nationally-televised night game on March 30, 2008. It was the first professional regular-season game to be played at the Nationals' new facility Nationals Park. President George W. Bush threw the ceremonial first pitch to Nationals' manager Manny Acta, and Ryan Zimmerman hit a two-out, walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth inning to mark an exciting beginning to the 2008 season. The Nationals also blew out the Phillies 11-6.

April

The Nationals clinched the series against the Phillies, winning 1-0. However, the Nationals struggled after a promising 3-0 start, losing 16 of their next 19 games to start off 6-16. They improved for the rest of the month, earning splits at Atlanta and at home against the Mets, and winning series against the Braves and the Pirates. Pope Benedict XVI celebrated Mass at Nationals Park in front of 47,000 people on April 17 while the Nationals were on a road trip.

May

The Nats started May winning 3 of the first 4 games of the month, earning them a 14-18 record, but lost 2 of 3 at Houston and were swept by the Florida Marlins at home. Then they took 3 of 4 against the struggling Mets at Shea Stadium, but in the first Beltway Series of 2008 they were nipped by the Orioles at Baltimore and lost two of three against the high-powered Phillies' offense. They split a series two games apiece against the Brewers and lost a series to the Padres. The Nats then beat up on the Diamondbacks in the first game of a series.

June

July

August

September

The team finished 59-102, the worst record in Major League Baseball. Six of the team's coaches were dismissed the day before the final game (a loss to the 2008 World Series champion Philadelphia Phillies); only manager Manny Acta and pitching coach Randy St. Clair were retained.

Season standings

NL East
Team W L Pct. GB Home Road
Philadelphia Phillies 92 70 .568 48‍–‍33 44‍–‍37
New York Mets 89 73 .549 3 48‍–‍33 41‍–‍40
Florida Marlins 84 77 .522 45‍–‍36 39‍–‍41
Atlanta Braves 72 90 .444 20 43‍–‍38 29‍–‍52
Washington Nationals 59 102 .366 32½ 34‍–‍46 25‍–‍56


Record vs. opponents


Source: [1]
Team AZ ATL CHC CIN COL FLA HOU LAD MIL NYM PHI PIT SD SF STL WSH AL
Arizona 3–5 2–4 2–4 15–3 2–7 4–2 8–10 2–5 3–3 3–4 4–3 10–8 11–7 3–4 4–2 6–9
Atlanta 5–3 0–6 3–3 4–3 10–8 3–3 4–2 3–6 11–7 4–14 2–5 5–1 2–5 2–5 6–12 8–7
Chicago 4–2 6–0 8–7 5–1 4–3 8–9 5–2 9–7 4–2 3–4 14–4 5–2 4–3 9–6 3–3 6–9
Cincinnati 4–2 3–3 7–8 1–5 6–2 3–12 1–7 10–8 3–4 3–5 6–9 4–3 5–1 5–10 4–3 9–6
Colorado 3–15 3–4 1–5 5–1 5–3 3–3 8–10 4–3 3–6 0–5 5–2 9–9 11–7 3–4 4–3 7–8
Florida 7–2 8–10 3–4 2–6 3–5 4–2 3–4 5–1 8–10 10–8 3–2 4–2 3–3 2–5 14–3 5–10
Houston 2–4 3–3 9–8 12–3 3–3 2–4 4–3 7–8 5–2 3–4 8–8 3–3 7–1 7–8 4–2 7–11
Los Angeles 10–8 2–4 2–5 7–1 10–8 4–3 3–4 4–2 3–4 4–4 5–2 11–7 9–9 2–4 3–3 5–10
Milwaukee 5–2 6–3 7–9 8–10 3–4 1–5 8–7 2–4 2–4 1–5 14–1 4–3 6–0 10–5 6–2 7–8
New York 3–3 7–11 2–4 4–3 6–3 10–8 2–5 4–3 4–2 11–7 4–3 2–5 5–1 4–3 12–6 9–6
Philadelphia 4–3 14–4 4–3 5–3 5–0 8–10 4–3 4–4 5–1 7–11 4–2 4–2 3–3 5–4 12–6 4–11
Pittsburgh 3–4 5–2 4–14 9–6 2–5 2–3 8–8 2–5 1–14 3–4 2–4 3–4 4–2 10–7 3–4 6–9
San Diego 8–10 1–5 2–5 3–4 9–9 2–4 3–3 7–11 3–4 5–2 2–4 4–3 5–13 1–6 5–1 3–15
San Francisco 7–11 5–2 3–4 1–5 7–11 3–3 1–7 9–9 0–6 1–5 3–3 2–4 13–5 4–3 7–0 6–12
St. Louis 4–3 5–2 6–9 10–5 4–3 5–2 8–7 4–2 5–10 3–4 4–5 7–10 6–1 3–4 5–1 7–8
Washington 2–4 12–6 3–3 3–4 3–4 3–14 2–4 3–3 2–6 6–12 6–12 4–3 1–5 0–7 1–5 8–10


Opening Day lineup

Opening Day Starters
Name Position
Cristian Guzmán Shortstop
Lastings Milledge Center fielder
Ryan Zimmerman Third baseman
Nick Johnson First baseman
Austin Kearns Right fielder
Paul Lo Duca Catcher
Elijah Dukes Left fielder
Ronnie Belliard Second baseman
Odalis Pérez Starting pitcher

Notable transactions

Draft

The 2008 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft took place on June 5 and 6. With their first pick – the ninth pick overall – the Nationals selected pitcher Aaron Crow. Other notable players the Nationals selected were shortstop Danny Espinosa (third round, 87th overall), catcher Adrián Nieto (fifth round, 151st overall), pitcher Tommy Milone (10th round, 301st overall), pitcher Louis Coleman (14th round, 421st overall), first baseman Tyler Moore (16th round, 481st overall), shortstop Steve Lombardozzi, Jr. (19th round, 571st overall), pitcher Cory Mazzoni (26th round, 781st overall), pitcher Chris Heston (29th round, 871st overall), catcher Rob Brantly (46th round, 1,378th overall), and outfielder Alex Dickerson (48th round, 1,432nd overall).[5] Crow, Coleman, Mazzoni, Heston, Brantly, and Dickerson all opted not to sign with the team. Moore finally did sign with the Nationals; it was the third time they had drafted him, but he had opted not to sign with them the first two times (in 2005 and 2006).

Roster

2008 Washington Nationals
Roster
Pitchers Catchers

Infielders

Outfielders

Manager

Coaches

Attendance

The Nationals drew 2,320,400 fans at Nationals Park in 2008, placing them 13th in attendance for the season among the 16 National League teams. Boosted by the opening of Nationals Park at the beginning of the season, it was their second-best attendance total in their short history in Washington, exceeded only by the 2,731,993 they drew in 2005, their first season in Washington.[6][7]

Game log

2008 Game Log

Player stats

Batting

Table is sortable.

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; R = Runs scored; H = Hits; 2B = Doubles; 3B = Triples; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in; AVG = Batting average; SB = Stolen bases

Pos Player G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI AVG SB
LF Willie Harris 140 367 28 92 14 4 13 43 .251 13
CF Lastings Milledge 138 523 65 140 24 2 14 61 .268 24
SS Christian Guzman 138 579 77 183 35 5 9 55 .316 6
3B Ryan Zimmerman 106 428 51 121 24 1 14 51 .283 1
1B Aaron Boone 104 232 23 56 13 1 6 28 .241 0
2B Felipe López 100 325 34 76 20 0 2 25 .234 4
IF Ronnie Belliard 96 296 37 85 22 0 11 46 .287 3
C Jesus Flores 90 301 23 77 18 1 8 59 .256 0
RF Austin Kearns 86 313 40 68 10 0 7 32 .217 2
RF Elijah Dukes 81 276 48 73 16 2 13 44 .264 13
OF Ryan Langerhans 73 111 17 26 5 2 3 12 .234 2
P Saúl Rivera 72 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 0
C Wil Nieves 68 176 15 46 9 1 1 20 .261 0
CI Kory Casto 66 163 15 35 10 0 2 16 .215 1
P Joel Hanrahan 65 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 0
LF Wily Mo Pena 64 195 10 40 6 0 2 10 .205 0
P Luis Ayala 60 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 0
P Jesús Colomé 58 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
P Charlie Manning 56 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1B Dmitri Young 50 150 15 42 6 0 4 10 .280 0
UT Pete Orr 49 75 10 19 2 1 0 7 .253 1
UT Paul Lo Duca 46 139 13 32 7 0 0 12 .230 1
P Jon Rauch 44 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 0
2B Emilio Bonifacio 41 157 26 39 5 5 0 12 .248 6
P Steven Shell 39 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 0
1B Nick Johnson 38 109 15 24 8 0 5 20 .220 0
OF Rob Mackowiak 38 53 7 7 1 0 1 4 .132 0
P Tim Redding 34 47 2 8 1 0 0 3 .170 0
P Odalis Perez 30 53 4 8 2 0 0 2 .151 0
P John Lannan 29 45 0 1 0 0 0 0 .022 0
P Jason Bergmann 29 40 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 0
2B Anderson Hernandez 28 81 11 27 4 0 0 17 .333 0
P Garrett Mock 26 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 0
OF Roger Bernadina 26 76 10 16 1 1 0 2 .211 4
C Johnny Estrada 23 53 0 9 0 0 0 4 .170 0
IF Alberto González 17 49 9 17 6 0 1 9 .347 0
P Collin Balester 15 15 1 3 0 0 0 1 .200 0
P Mike Hinckley 14 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
P Ray King 12 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
P Marco Estrada 11 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
P Matt Chico 10 13 2 2 0 0 0 0 .154 0
C Luke Montz 10 21 2 3 0 0 1 3 .143 0
P Brian Sanches 10 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
P Shawn Hill 9 7 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 0
P Levale Speigner 7 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
P Chad Cordero 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
P Shairon Martis 5 7 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 0
P Michael O'Connor 5 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 0
P Chris Schroder 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
P Tyler Clippard 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 1.000 0
Totals 161 5491 641 1376 269 26 117 608 .251 81

Pitching

Table is sortable.

Note: Pos = Position; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; G = Games pitched; GS = Games started; SV = Saves; IP = Innings pitched; R = Runs allowed; ER = Earned runs allowed; BB = Walks allowed; K = Strikeouts

Pos Player W L ERA G GS SV IP R ER BB K
SP Tim Redding 10 11 4.95 33 33 0 182.0 110 100 65 120
SP John Lannan 9 15 3.91 31 31 0 182.0 89 79 72 117
SP Odalis Perez 7 12 4.34 30 30 0 159.2 87 77 55 119
RP Joel Hanrahan 6 3 3.95 69 0 9 84.1 40 37 42 93
RP Saúl Rivera 5 6 3.96 76 0 0 84.0 41 37 35 65
CL Jon Rauch 4 2 2.98 48 0 17 48.1 18 16 7 44
SP Collin Balester 3 7 5.51 15 15 0 80.0 53 49 28 50
SP Jason Bergmann 2 11 5.09 30 22 0 139.2 94 79 47 96
Steven Shell 2 2 2.16 39 0 2 50.0 14 12 20 41
Brian Sanches 2 0 7.36 12 0 0 11.1 10 9 5 10
RP Jesús Colomé 2 2 4.31 61 0 0 71.0 38 34 39 55
Tyler Clippard 1 1 4.35 2 2 0 10.1 5 5 7 8
Charlie Manning 1 3 5.14 57 0 0 42.0 25 24 31 37
Garrett Mock 1 3 4.17 26 3 0 41.0 20 19 23 46
Shairon Martis 1 3 5.66 5 4 0 20.2 14 13 12 23
Mike O'Connor 1 1 13.00 5 1 0 9.0 13 13 11 4
Shawn Hill 1 5 5.83 12 12 0 63.1 47 41 23 39
RP Luis Ayala 1 8 5.77 62 0 0 57.2 41 37 22 36
Marco Estrada 0 0 7.82 11 0 0 12.2 13 11 5 10
Ray King 0 0 5.68 12 0 0 6.1 4 4 4 1
Levale Speigner 0 1 11.25 7 0 0 8.0 10 10 6 1
Chris Schroder 0 0 5.4 4 0 0 5.0 3 3 6 3
Matt Chico 0 6 6.19 11 8 0 48.0 34 34 17 31
Chad Cordero 0 0 2.08 6 0 0 4.1 1 1 3 5
Mike Hinckley 0 0 0.00 14 0 0 13.2 1 0 3 9
Totals 59 102 4.66 161 161 28 1434.0 825 742 588 1063

Team leaders

Qualifying players only.

Batting

Stat Player Total
Avg. Christian Guzman .316
HR Lastings Milledge
Ryan Zimmerman
14
14
RBI Lastings Milledge 61
R Christian Guzman 77
H Christian Guzman 183
SB Lastings Milledge 24

Pitching

Stat Player Total
W Tim Redding 10
L John Lannan 15
ERA John Lannan 3.91
SO Tim Redding 120
SV Jon Rauch 17
IP John Lannan
Tim Redding
182.0
182.0

Awards and honors

All-Stars

Washington's Top 20 Prospects

1. Chris Marrero, 1B/OF
2. Ross Detwiler, LHP
3. Collin Balester, RHP
4. Michael Burgess, OF
5. Jack McGeary, LHP
6. Josh Smoker, LHP
7. Jordan Zimmermann, RHP
8. Justin Maxwell, OF
9. Colton Willems, RHP
10. John Lannan, LHP
11. Jake Smolinski, OF
12. Tyler Clippard, RHP
13. Adam Carr, RHP
14. Ian Desmond, SS
15. Garrett Mock, RHP
16. Stephen King, SS
17. Esmailyn Gonzalez, SS
18. Shairon Martis, RHP
19. Brad Peacock, RHP
20. Kory Casto, OF/3B

Farm system

Level Team League Manager
AAA Columbus Clippers International League Tim Foli
AA Harrisburg Senators Eastern League John Stearns
A Potomac Nationals Carolina League Randy Knorr
A Hagerstown Suns South Atlantic League Darnell Coles
A-Short Season Vermont Lake Monsters New York–Penn League Ramón Avilés
Rookie GCL Nationals Gulf Coast League Bob Henley

LEAGUE CHAMPIONS: Potomac

References