Washington Nationals Trivia
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48 free Washington Nationals trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Sep 2026.
This Washington Nationals trivia quiz covers a franchise with two lives: the Montreal Expos, born at Expo 67 with Rusty Staub, Youppi! and the heartbreak of the 1994 strike, and the Nationals, who brought baseball back to the capital in 2005. There are questions on the contraction vote and the Loria-Henry ownership shuffle, why the club is not called the Senators, RFK Stadium and Ryan Zimmerman, Stephen Strasburg's 14-strikeout debut, Bryce Harper's unanimous MVP, Max Scherzer's contract, the four NLDS exits, Juan Soto's trade, and the 19-31 team that won the 2019 World Series without winning a home game. Nationals Park, the Racing Presidents and Teddy's long losing streak, the cherry-blossom City Connect uniforms, the MASN television saga and the ownership changes get their own questions too. Easy questions suit any Nats fan; the hard ones are for people who remember which mascot got ejected first. Every answer has been checked against an encyclopaedic source and each question shows its citation once you have answered.
30 of 48 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Before moving to Washington in 2005, the Nationals franchise played in which city?
Montreal
Montreal. The Expos took their name from the Expo 67 world's fair, and in 2003 and 2004 they played about a quarter of their home games in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Q 02Which former Phillies manager became the Expos' first skipper in 1969?
Gene Mauch
Gene Mauch. His 1964 Phillies blew a 6½-game lead with 12 to play, and he managed 26 seasons in the majors without ever winning a pennant.
Q 03What ended the 1994 season with the Expos holding baseball's best record?
Players' strike
A players' strike. It wiped out the World Series, and the next spring the cash-strapped Expos parted with Larry Walker, Marquis Grissom, John Wetteland and Ken Hill within days.
Q 04A court order forcing which team to honour its stadium lease derailed MLB's 2001 plan to fold two clubs?
Minnesota Twins
Minnesota Twins. Owners voted 28-2 to drop two teams, reportedly the Twins and Expos, who cast the only no votes; a judge then held the Twins to their 2002 Metrodome lease.
Q 05Which owner sold the Expos to MLB in 2002 in a deal that let him buy the Florida Marlins?
Jeffrey Loria
Jeffrey Loria sold the Expos to Major League Baseball for $120 million in February 2002 and used the proceeds to buy the Marlins from John Henry, who then bought the Red Sox.
Q 06Washington's previous team, the Senators, left after the 1971 season to become which club?
Texas Rangers
Texas Rangers. Owner Bob Short moved the club to Arlington, and its last home game was forfeited to the Yankees when fans stormed the field with two outs in the ninth.
Q 07Which owner cast the lone vote against moving the Expos to Washington in December 2004?
Peter Angelos of the Orioles
Peter Angelos of the Orioles objected to a team in his market; as compensation MLB gave him control of the new club's television rights.
Q 08Why did District politicians object to reviving the name 'Senators' for the Nationals?
D.C. has no vote in Congress
D.C. has no vote in Congress, and District politicians called the name a poor fit for a city with no senators of its own. Nationals had been the old American League club's official name for half a century.
Q 09D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams wanted the Nationals named in honour of which Negro league club?
Homestead Grays
The Homestead Grays, though based near Pittsburgh, played many 1940s home games at Washington's Griffith Stadium; Mayor Williams favoured 'Grays' before 'Nationals' was chosen.
Q 10The Nationals played their first three Washington seasons, 2005 to 2007, at which venue?
RFK Stadium
RFK Stadium. It opened as D.C. Stadium and was renamed for Robert F. Kennedy in 1969, months after his assassination; the Nationals left for Nationals Park in 2008.
Q 11The Nationals' first draft pick, in 2005, was which University of Virginia third baseman?
Ryan Zimmerman
Ryan Zimmerman. He reached the majors that same September, and in 2008 his ninth-inning walk-off homer won the first regular-season game at Nationals Park.
Q 12Who threw the ceremonial first pitch before the first regular-season game at Nationals Park?
George W. Bush
George W. Bush. He had also thrown the first pitch at the club's first Washington home game in 2005; this time manager Manny Acta caught it, and Washington won on a walk-off homer.
Q 13Nationals Park was the first major U.S. sports stadium to have what?
LEED green-building certification
Q 21Which children's song became the 2019 Nationals' rally anthem?
Baby Shark
Baby Shark. Gerardo Parra, stuck in a slump, made his two-year-old daughter's favourite his walk-up music on June 19; the team had been 19-31 in May and finished as champions.
Q 22The Nationals beat which team 4-3 in the 2019 NL Wild Card Game?
Milwaukee Brewers
Milwaukee Brewers. Trailing in the eighth, Juan Soto lined a bases-loaded single that skipped past right fielder Trent Grisham, and all three runners came home.
Q 23The Nationals defeated which team in the 2019 World Series?
Houston Astros
Houston Astros. They had won 107 games that year and sent Cy Young winners Justin Verlander and Zack Greinke to the mound in Games 6 and 7, yet lost both.
LEED green-building certification. Aiming only for the basic grade, the park earned Silver status from the U.S. Green Building Council when it opened beside the Anacostia River in 2008.
Q 14The Nationals used the first overall draft pick in 2009 and 2010 on which two players?
Stephen Strasburg and Bryce Harper
Stephen Strasburg and Bryce Harper. Washington earned both picks the hard way, finishing with the worst record in baseball in 2008 (59-102) and again in 2009 (59-103).
Q 15What did the Nationals' 2009 No. 1 pick do in his MLB debut?
Struck out 14
Struck out 14. He did it without a single walk against the Pirates on June 8, 2010, fanning the last seven men he faced to top the Nationals' record of 13.
Q 16Bryce Harper left high school two years early to play for which junior college?
College of Southern Nevada
College of Southern Nevada. Harper, 17, caught there for his older brother Bryan, a pitcher, yet the Nationals drafted him first overall in 2010 as an outfielder.
Q 17Which teammate grabbed Bryce Harper's throat during his 2015 MVP season?
Jonathan Papelbon
Jonathan Papelbon. The closer went at Harper in the dugout on September 27, and the club suspended him four games without pay; Harper was voted MVP unanimously all the same.
Q 18After the 2018 season Bryce Harper left the Nationals to sign with which team?
Philadelphia Phillies
Philadelphia Phillies. His 13-year, $330 million deal with a division rival was the richest guaranteed contract in North American sports, and Washington won the World Series the next season without him.
Q 19Which Nationals closer lost Game 5 of the 2012 NLDS?
Drew Storen
Drew Storen. Washington, fresh off its first NL East title, led 7-5 and stood one out from the NLCS before the Cardinals rallied to win 9-7.
Q 20Max Scherzer went to the Dodgers at the 2021 trade deadline along with which Nationals teammate?
Trea Turner
Trea Turner. Less than two years after their World Series title, the Nationals sent their All-Star shortstop and Scherzer, a two-time Cy Young winner in Washington, west for four prospects.
Q 24What was unprecedented about the 2019 World Series?
The road team won all seven games
The road team won all seven games, a first in World Series history: Washington won four times away from home and lost all three games played at Nationals Park.
Q 25Who was named MVP of the 2019 World Series?
Stephen Strasburg
Stephen Strasburg. He won Games 2 and 6, the second with Washington facing elimination, and finished 5-0, the first pitcher to win five times without a loss in one postseason.
Q 26Whose two-run homer off the foul pole gave the Nationals the lead for good in Game 7 of the 2019 World Series?
Howie Kendrick
Howie Kendrick's two-run homer off the right-field foul pole in the seventh inning of Game 7 put Washington ahead 3-2; he had also hit a tenth-inning grand slam in NLDS Game 5.
Q 27All five of the 2019 Nationals' postseason elimination wins had what in common?
They were come-from-behind victories
They were come-from-behind victories: Washington trailed in the Wild Card Game, NLDS Games 4 and 5 and World Series Games 6 and 7, and won every one.
Q 28In August 2022 the Nationals traded 23-year-old star Juan Soto to which team?
San Diego Padres
San Diego Padres. Soto went west with Josh Bell for six players; the Padres later dealt him to the Yankees, and in December 2024 he signed with the Mets for $765 million.
Q 29Which pair arrived in the 2022 Juan Soto trade, one of them a 2024 All-Star?
CJ Abrams and James Wood
CJ Abrams and James Wood. Both arrived in the August 2022 deal; Abrams was an All-Star shortstop in 2024, and Wood followed him to the All-Star Game a year later.
Q 30Which manager led the Nationals to the 2019 title and was fired in July 2025?
Dave Martinez
Dave Martinez managed the club from 2018, winning the 2019 World Series, until he and general manager Mike Rizzo were dismissed on the same day in July 2025.