Opening Day The Nationals opened their season on April 6 at
Nationals Park against the
New York Mets. As multiple starters were still recovering from offseason surgeries or injuries sustained during Spring training, the Nationals were forced to get creative with their lineup in order to fill the holes:
Michael A. Taylor stood in for the recovering
Denard Span in center field, and
Tyler Moore was placed in left field while
Jayson Werth was still rehabilitating an injured shoulder.
Yunel Escobar, originally slated to play at second base, was bumped to third as
Anthony Rendon continued nursing an MCL sprain. The sudden vacancy at second was filled by the veteran
Dan Uggla, who had impressed the coaching staff during Spring training. The Nationals were mostly quiet on offense throughout the game except for Harper, who went 2-for-4 on the day. Harper opened up the score by smashing a solo home run over the right-field wall in the fourth inning, giving his team a 1–0 lead. but a pair of errors by the shortstop Ian Desmond in the sixth and seventh innings allowed the Mets to score three runs, causing the Nationals to lose the game 3–1. The Mets' starting pitcher
Bartolo Colón was credited with the win, and reliever
Buddy Carlyle notched the first save in his career. Nationals starting pitcher
Max Scherzer was credited with the loss, despite having an
ERA of 0.00 as all three Mets runs came indirectly from Desmond's two errors.
Opening Day lineup Season standings National League East National League Wild Card Record vs. opponents April The Nationals struggled to stay afloat in their first month of the season. The team lost on Opening Day to the
New York Mets, with
Max Scherzer getting his first regular-season start as a Washington National and taking the loss despite pitching well, with shortstop
Ian Desmond and second baseman
Dan Uggla contributing to the defeat with defensive miscues in the middle infield. The Nationals managed to bounce back from the poor result with a win over the Mets in the second game of the series, earning
Jordan Zimmermann his first win and
Drew Storen his first save of the year. However, with its normal top three men in the lineup still not ready due to a spate of injuries, the offense struggled to score runs as the team lost the opening series at home to the Mets, with New York ace
Matt Harvey outdueling
Stephen Strasburg in Harvey's return after
Tommy John surgery. The Nationals had similar results in the following series against the
Philadelphia Phillies and the
Boston Red Sox. Even when they scored multiple runs, poor fielding would often sabotage the team's chances of victory. The Nationals ended the month with a league-worst 24 recorded errors, nine of them attributed solely to Desmond. Outfielders
Jayson Werth and
Denard Span eventually finished their minor-league injury rehab assignments and rejoined the team, with Werth coming up on April 13 and Span returning on April 19. However, more players would go on the disabled list over the course of the month. Right-handed relief pitcher
Craig Stammen tore a flexor tendon in his pitching arm and needed surgery to repair it, abruptly ending his 2015 campaign just a couple weeks into the season. Left-hander
Felipe Rivero, called up to add depth to the bullpen, only made one appearance in a loss to the Phillies before going on the disabled list with gastrointestinal bleeding.
Reed Johnson, signed late in spring training to provide bench depth, was hurt late in the month, straining his calf while avoiding a pickoff throw to first base. Meanwhile,
Casey Janssen,
Nate McLouth, and
Anthony Rendon all stayed on the disabled list throughout the month, with changing timetables for their return. The Nationals also traded away left-handed reliever
Xavier Cedeño after a string of poor performances out of the bullpen. On April 28, pitching prospect
A. J. Cole made an unexpected major-league debut against the
Atlanta Braves after Scherzer injured his thumb. Cole was chased off the mound after two innings, allowing nine runs off nine hits and one walk, with one strikeout. Despite being down 9–1 after two innings, the team fought back and won the game 13–12, capped by a go-ahead three-run homer by Uggla, a former Brave, in the ninth inning. The effort broke the Nationals' previous record comeback from June 17, 2006, when the team came back from a 9–2 deficit to beat the Yankees 11–9. The Nationals also set another record the very next game, posting back-to-back 13-run games after repeating their offensive performance and demolishing the Braves 13–4 in the rubber match of the series. However, Johnson suffered a leg injury during the game and ended up being placed on the disabled list for most of the season. At one point, the team had so many consecutive save opportunities that manager
Matt Williams opted to rest Storen and gave starter-turned-reliever
Tanner Roark his first career save on May 4 against the
Miami Marlins. Rookie
A. J. Cole later notched his own first save during a 10–0 blowout of the
San Diego Padres on May 15, having pitched three straight innings in relief, during a brief call-up due to a forearm injury to starting pitcher
Doug Fister that placed Fister on the disabled list. Other rookies notched their own notable firsts throughout this month: left-handed pitchers
Matt Grace and
Sammy Solis acquired their first major-league wins on May 4 and May 10, respectively. Utility player
Clint Robinson, a 30-year-old rookie, became the first Nationals position player ever to pitch in a regular-season game, making his
Major League Baseball pitching debut in a May 12 loss to the
Arizona Diamondbacks and tossing a scoreless inning in relief, including a three-pitch strikeout of veteran infielder
Aaron Hill. Rookie outfielder
Michael Taylor, who subbed in for an ejected
Bryce Harper in a May 13 matchup against the Diamondbacks, hit his first career grand slam off
Addison Reed in the top of the ninth inning to win the game for his team.
Wilmer Difo, an infielder who started the year at the team's High-A affiliate
Potomac Nationals, was called up on May 19 and hit a single up the middle against the
New York Yankees on his first-ever major-league at-bat. For a large part of the month, Harper led the
National League in nearly every offensive category, including batting average,
home runs,
runs batted in, and
wins above replacement. Harper was awarded as "NL Player of the Week" two weeks in a row. However, he was also ejected twice during the month for arguing with the home plate umpire, once on May 13 in Arizona and again on May 20 as
Nationals Park hosted the Yankees. The second ejection, by veteran umpire
Marvin Hudson, faced criticism from
The Washington Post and the Nationals, with Williams saying after the game, "I can't explain it. I don't believe there's anything that warrants throwing him out of the game right there." Unfortunately for the team, the injury bug kept eating its way through the starting lineup: Fister was diagnosed with a flexor strain after a losing performance against the
San Diego Padres on May 14, forcing Roark to start in his place while he recovered and prompting the Nationals to call up Cole.
Stephen Strasburg pitched poorly in several games and was often pulled out early, until the team finally placed him on the disabled list following a short start against the
Cincinnati Reds on May 29 due to neck tightness. Meanwhile, infielder
Anthony Rendon's rehab hit a snag after he strained an oblique while rehabbing from an earlier MCL sprain, pushing his own return to June. All the injuries came to a head in the series against the Reds to close out the month. The offense struggled to score runs, and when the team did lead the bullpen struggled to keep their opponents in check. The Nationals were swept for the first and only time in May. In addition, Harper was
hit by a pitch in the back on May 29 and sat out the middle game to recover. The Nationals' only left-handed starting pitcher,
Gio González, was hit by pitches twice at the plate in the May 30 game, including once in his throwing arm, which led to him getting pulled earlier than planned after surrendering two runs when he next took the mound. Grace made a disastrous relief appearance in the last game of the Reds series, surrendering four earned runs while failing to retire any of the five batters he faced before he was pulled. Though they were now leading the NL East, the Nationals ended the month only a half-game above the Mets.
June Rookie left-handed reliever
Felipe Rivero was reactivated from the disabled list on June 1, replacing
Matt Grace on the bullpen roster. but he went back on the disabled list on June 26 with a quadriceps strain. Slugger
Ryan Zimmerman, the Nationals' regular first baseman, was placed on the disabled list on June 11 after attempting to play through
plantar fasciitis in his left foot with poor results for the first two months of the season. With
Doug Fister and
Stephen Strasburg still dealing with nagging injuries, the Nationals called up
Joe Ross, a right-handed pitcher, from the Double-A
Harrisburg Senators to temporarily join the rotation. He made his first start against the
Chicago Cubs on June 6, pitching well but taking the loss due to lack of run support. Ross notched his first major league win on June 13, besting
Jimmy Nelson and the
Milwaukee Brewers at
Miller Park in a 7–2 game. The Nationals also acquired
David Carpenter as a relief pitcher from the
New York Yankees on June 11. The Nationals did enjoy spectacular pitching performances during June, especially from ace
Max Scherzer. In a 4–0 victory over the Brewers at
Miller Park on June 14, Scherzer pitched a complete-game one-hitter in which he had 16 strikeouts, a new personal best that also set a new Nationals single-game strikeout record, exceeding the previous team record of 14 strikeouts Strasburg set in his Major League Baseball debut on June 8,
2010. Scherzer retired the first 18 Brewers he faced—also a Nationals record—and only two Brewers reached base, via a single and a walk. Only three balls left the infield, and Scherzer had 27 swings-and-misses among his 119 pitches, another personal best and the most by any Major League Baseball pitcher during the
2015 season up to that time. Eight of his strikeouts came on four or fewer pitches. It was Scherzer's second career shutout and only the third time that a Nationals pitcher had pitched a one-hit shutout, the previous two having been by
Gio González and
Jordan Zimmermann in
2013. Scherzer also became only the third Major League Baseball pitcher in history to pitch a one-hit shutout with 16 or more strikeouts and one walk or less, joining
Nolan Ryan and
Kerry Wood. On June 16, the Nationals had 23 hits in a 16–4 win over the
Tampa Bay Rays at
Tropicana Field, setting a record for the most hits by the team in a single game since the franchise moved to Washington for the
2005 season. Late in the game, the rookie Ross
pinch-hit for
designated hitter Yunel Escobar, the first time a pitcher had pinch-hit for a designated hitter in a Major League Baseball game since
1992. In his first start since his one-hit shutout in Milwaukee, Scherzer pitched the second
no-hitter in Nationals history—as well as the sixth in the history of the franchise since it began play in Montreal in 1969 and the fourth in history for a Washington, D.C., Major League Baseball team—on June 20, 2015, shutting down the
Pittsburgh Pirates in a 6–0 win at Nationals Park. Scherzer's
perfect game bid was denied by
José Tábata, whom he
hit with a pitch on a two-ball, two-strike count with two outs in the ninth inning to become the only Pirates base runner of the game. Tábata faced some criticism after the game by fans and analysts who believed he leaned into the pitch, although Scherzer said he did not blame Tábata for breaking up the perfect game. Scherzer had 10 strikeouts in the game and, although it was only the third complete game of his career, it was his second complete game in a row. In the two games, in which he had a combined 26 strikeouts, his opponents had gone 1-for-55 against him, making him the first Major League Baseball player to allow one hit or fewer in consecutive complete games since
Jim Tobin of the
Boston Braves in
1944. In a 9–2 victory over Pittsburgh at Nationals Park on June 21, the Nationals scored nine runs in the first inning. It set a new Nationals record for runs scored in the first inning and tied the Nationals record for runs scored in any inning. The Pirates did not score until the ninth inning, ending a 24-inning streak of scoreless innings pitched by Nationals pitchers
Joe Ross,
David Carpenter,
Drew Storen,
Max Scherzer,
Gio González, and
Matt Thornton during the three games against Pittsburgh, a new Nationals record for consecutive scoreless innings pitched. In the seventh inning of a 5–2 win over the
Philadelphia Phillies at
Citizens Bank Park in
Philadelphia, on June 26, the Phillies scored a run off Nationals starting pitcher Max Scherzer, ending a streak of 48 consecutive scoreless innings posted by Nationals starting pitchers Ross, Gonzalez, Strasburg, Zimmermann, Fister, and Scherzer that began in the third inning of a 4–1 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates at Nationals Park on June 19. It was the longest streak of consecutive scoreless innings by starting pitchers in the history of the Montreal–Washington franchise, and the second-longest by any Major League Baseball team since the beginning of the "
expansion era" in
1961. The run given up on June 26 also ended Scherzer's personal scoreless-inning streak of innings, but he became the first major league pitcher since
Doyle Alexander in
1976 to pitch a
perfect game through the first six innings in three consecutive starts. to receive the award, and the award for June 2015 made him the first Nationals pitcher to win it twice, the first Nationals pitcher to win it in two consecutive months, and the first pitcher in Montreal–Washington franchise history to win it in consecutive months since
Jeff Fassero received it in
June and July 1996 while playing for the Montreal Expos.
July Ace
Max Scherzer was named to the
National League team in the
All-Star Game on July 14, but he chose not to skip his start before the exhibition game—a hard-fought win over the
Baltimore Orioles on July 12 in which he threw 115 pitches—and did not pitch in it. Star outfielder
Bryce Harper did play in the All-Star Game after finishing number one overall in fan votes received, a new record at more than 13.9 million, though he went hitless. The Nationals' season-long struggle with injuries continued. Center fielder
Denard Span was placed on the disabled list effective July 7 after attempting to play through persistent back spasms and skipping a few games to rest. Newly acquired right-handed reliever
David Carpenter landed on the disabled list with inflammation in his throwing shoulder on July 12, shortly after returning from paternity leave. After the
All-Star Break, baseball resumed on July 17 with a very odd evening at Nationals Park in the first of three games the Nationals hosted against the
Los Angeles Dodgers. At 8:19 p.m. EDT with one out in the bottom of the fourth inning, a bank of lights went out, forcing a 1-hour-22-minute stoppage of play. After the lighting finally was restored, the teams played for nine more minutes before the lights went out for a second time. The second delay lasted 40 minutes, after which play resumed. Twelve minutes later, the lights went out for a third time, and the game was suspended with five innings completed and the Nationals ahead 3–2. It was the first game in the history of Nationals Park that was suspended for any reason other than weather. Although rumors spread that the outage somehow was related to a pair of
Taylor Swift concerts held at Nationals Park two days earlier, the Nationals announced the following morning that a faulty
circuit breaker appeared to have caused the lighting failure. The game was completed on the afternoon following its suspension, resulting in a 5–3 Washington victory. On July 18, after the completion of the suspended game, the Nationals and Dodgers also played their previously scheduled game for the date. Dodgers starting pitcher
Clayton Kershaw, whom the Nationals had not beaten since the
2010 season, had a dominating three-hit performance in the 4–2 Dodger victory, retiring 17 of the last 18 batters he faced and striking out 14 Nationals over eight scoreless innings. No opposing pitcher had ever struck out that many Nationals in a single game since the team's arrival in Washington for the
2005 season. The Nationals swung and missed 30 times against Kershaw, more swings-and-misses than any major-league pitcher had induced in a single game over the past seven years. Star infielder
Anthony Rendon returned from the disabled list on July 25 after missing 25 games with a quadriceps strain. He was joined on July 28 by outfielder
Jayson Werth and first baseman
Ryan Zimmerman, who missed 61 and 49 games respectively in lengthy disabled list stints. Expecting a big boost from the return of their previously injured players, the Nationals were less active than their main division rivals, the Mets, at the trade deadline. However, they made a major move by trading with another division rival team, the
Philadelphia Phillies, for closer
Jonathan Papelbon in exchange for minor league starting pitcher
Nick Pivetta. As a result of the trade, closer
Drew Storen was tasked with the setup role after Papelbon was given assurances by the Nationals that he would handle save situations.
August The Nationals continued to lose ground to the
New York Mets, who swept them in a series at
Citi Field in
Queens and then retook sole possession of the division lead on August 4. The slumping Nationals also made changes to their rotation in early August. On August 6, after rookie right-hander
Joe Ross led the Nationals to a win over the
Arizona Diamondbacks, manager
Matt Williams announced Ross would remain in the rotation going forward and starter
Doug Fister, who had been struggling all season, would move to the bullpen.
Stephen Strasburg also returned, taking the mound for the first time since July 4 after a stint on the
disabled list, to pitch seven innings in a 6–1 Nationals victory over the
Colorado Rockies at Nationals Park on August 8, giving up only three
hits and striking out 12. Although he had only six hits during the entire
2014 season, Strasburg went 3-for-3 at the plate in the August 8 game. His three
singles made him the first Nationals player ever to
strike out 10 or more opponents and have three hits of his own in the same game. With two outs in the seventh inning of a 3–2 loss to the Rockies at
Coors Field on August 21, Nationals center fielder
Michael A. Taylor hit a two-run home run to deep left center field off Rockies starting pitcher
Yohan Flande measured at . It went farther than any other home run in Major League Baseball during the
2015 season up to that time. Outfielder
Reed Johnson experienced an unusual setback in his recovery, sneezing and ending up with a broken rib. Regular center fielder
Denard Span returned from a lengthy stint on the disabled list on August 25, but he played just two games before going back on the disabled list and undergoing season-ending hip surgery. Fellow veteran
Ryan Zimmerman, the Nationals' starting first baseman, fared better in his return from the disabled list, batting in 28 runs in August to tie a team record. By the end of the month, the Nationals were barely above .500 for the season at 66–64 and hung 6.5 games behind the Mets in the division. During the game, center fielder
Bryce Harper walked four times in his four plate appearances. He scored four runs and had one RBI without ever swinging at any of the 20 pitches thrown to him, becoming the first Major League Baseball player to do so since at least 1920, when tracking of the RBI statistic began. He saw the second-greatest number of pitches in a game without swinging since 2005, exceeded only by
Juan Uribe, who saw 21 pitches in a game without swinging while playing for the
San Francisco Giants in 2010. He became the first Major League Baseball player with four or more walks, four or more runs, and at least one RBI in the same game since
Derrek Lee in 2002 with the
Florida Marlins, and the first in history to do so while also recording an RBI. He was replaced in the rotation by former starter
Tanner Roark and made his first appearance out of Washington's bullpen on September 12. The Mets swept the Nationals in a close-fought three-game series in
Nationals Park, coming from behind to win in each game as the Nationals' bullpen faltered. After allowing the eventual game-winning home run to
Yoenis Céspedes on September 9, reliever
Drew Storen slammed his hand on a clubhouse locker and broke his thumb, bringing an end to his season. First baseman
Ryan Zimmerman was also forced to sit out the rest of the season due to injury after straining an oblique muscle in the midst of an 11-game hitting streak with six home runs. Storen's replacement as closer, newly acquired
Jonathan Papelbon, ran into his own problems in September. He blew his first save of the season, one year to the day after his last blown save as a member of the
Philadelphia Phillies, in a game against his former team when he allowed a solo home run to
Freddy Galvis on September 14. He blew a second consecutive save opportunity on an unearned run on September 18, against the
Miami Marlins. Days later, he was ejected from a close game against the
Baltimore Orioles on September 23 after throwing two pitches above Orioles slugger
Manny Machado's shoulders while Machado was at bat. Harper appeared to criticize his teammate after the game, saying "somebody drilled" Machado for hitting a home run earlier in the game and adding, "It's pretty tired." Papelbon was suspended by
Major League Baseball for three games over the incident, but he appealed the suspension and was allowed to continue playing through the appeal. On September 27, Papelbon berated Harper after the slugger popped out during a game against the
Philadelphia Phillies, telling him he had not run out hard enough to first base. The two exchanged words in the dugout before Papelbon lunged at Harper and grabbed him by the throat, and the teammates briefly grappled before being separated. Harper left the game without speaking to Williams, who sent Papelbon out to pitch the ninth, in which he gave up five runs and took the loss. Asked why he kept Papelbon in the game even after the fight, Williams explained, "He's our closer." He later said he had been unaware of the extent of the altercation. The next day, the Nationals announced Papelbon would accept the earlier three-game suspension as well as a four-game team suspension, effectively ending his season.
October With
Drew Storen injured and
Jonathan Papelbon suspended, rookie left-hander
Felipe Rivero assumed the role of closer for the last week of the season, recording his first career save against the Braves on October 1. Ace
Max Scherzer threw his second
no-hitter of the season on October 3, the first since
Nolan Ryan in 1973 to pitch multiple no-hitters during the regular season. He struck out 17
Mets during the 2–0 Nationals victory, with nine going down swinging in a row before
Curtis Granderson popped up for the final out. Only one opposing batter reached base, on a throwing error by third baseman
Yunel Escobar. Scherzer's no-hitter was hailed as one of the greatest pitching performances in
Major League Baseball history, coming in with a
game score of 104—second only to
Kerry Wood's one-hitter in 1998 with a game score of 105, among nine-inning games. The Mets defeated the Nationals 1–0 and Harper fell behind Gordon for the batting title, but he clinched the OBP title over Votto with a double in his final at-bat of the season and finished tied with Arenado at 42 home runs apiece. He went on to win the National League
Most Valuable Player Award, the youngest ever ballplayer to receive the honor by a unanimous vote, and the National League
Hank Aaron Award, as well as a
Silver Slugger Award. Scherzer finished fifth in NL
Cy Young Award voting. Manager
Matt Williams and his entire coaching staff were dismissed on October 5, the day after the regular season ended.
Notable transactions • April 22, 2015: The Nationals traded
Xavier Cedeño to the
Los Angeles Dodgers for cash considerations. • May 5, 2015: The Nationals purchased minor-leaguer
Darin Mastroianni from the
Philadelphia Phillies. • June 1, 2015: The Nationals purchased minor-leaguer
P. J. Walters from the Los Angeles Dodgers. • July 28, 2015: The Nationals traded minor-leaguer
Nick Pivetta to the
Philadelphia Phillies for
Jonathan Papelbon and cash.
Major league debuts •
A. J. Cole (April 28, 2015) •
Abel De Los Santos (July 21, 2015) •
Wilmer Difo (May 19, 2015) •
Matt Grace (April 22, 2015) •
Felipe Rivero (April 17, 2015) •
Joe Ross (June 6, 2015) •
Pedro Severino (September 20, 2015) •
Sammy Solis (April 30, 2015) •
Trea Turner (August 21, 2015)
Culture and entertainment In 2015, the Nationals entered a three-year marketing partnership with the
White House Historical Association in which the
President of the United States honored in the association's annual
Christmas ornament each year also would appear that season as a Racing President in the
Presidents Race at Nationals Park. In accordance with the agreement, the Nationals announced midway through the 2015 season that a likeness of
Calvin Coolidge ("Cal" for short), the 30th President of the United States, would become the sixth Racing President, as well as the first one to enter the race while an MLB season was in progress, joining George Washington ("George"), Thomas Jefferson ("Tom"), Abraham Lincoln ("Abe"), Theodore Roosevelt ("Teddy"), and William Howard Taft ("Bill"). Cal debuted on July 3, 2015, the eve of his 143rd birthday, during a game against the
San Francisco Giants, and won his first race. Cal was retired after the season.
Attendance The Nationals drew 2,619,843 fans at Nationals Park during 2015, their third-highest attendance since arriving in Washington in
2005. It placed them fifth in attendance for the season among the 15 National League teams, their highest attendance ranking for a single season at the time. Their highest attendance at a home game was on April 6, when they drew 42,295 for a game against the
New York Mets on Opening Day, while their lowest was 23,192 for the first game of a doubleheader against the
Toronto Blue Jays on June 2. Their average home attendance was 32,344 per game, third-highest since their arrival in Washington.
Game log ==Roster==