Major League Baseball announced their 2026 schedules for all teams today, and the Washington Nationals will face four presumed 2025 playoff teams in their first 5-series as part of the 2026 schedule that will begin in Chicago weather on the road against the Cubs on Thursday, March 26 for Opening Day. That is the earliest start to a season in Nationals history.
The Nats’ home opener will be against the Los Angeles Dodgers on April 3 over Easter Weekend. Note that there is no rain day-off scheduled like normal after Opening Day and the second game, as we normally see. With the completion of the Dodgers series, the St. Louis Cardinals come to the nation’s capital for three games (April 6–8) to complete the first homestand of the season.
The annual Beltway Series against the Baltimore Orioles will be played across two weekends, May 15–17 at Nationals Park and June 26–28 at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. MLB is calling the May 15-17 series Rivalry Weekend.
In the month of June, the Nationals had been hosting Father’s Day for several years, but not in 2026 as the Nationals will be on the road in Tampa on Sunday, June 21. Will Tampa still be in Steinbrenner Field for the 2026 season or back at Tropicana Field after the stadium was significantly damaged by Hurricane Milton. The plan is to be back at Tropicana Field.
The Nationals will host the Pittsburgh Pirates for a three-game weekend series Friday through Sunday, July 3–5, highlighted by the traditional 4th of July Independence Day game at Nationals Park. That series marks the start of a nine-game homestand that will include a series against the Houston Astros (July 6–8) and a weekend series against the New York Yankees (July 10–12) — the final series before the 2026 All-Star break with those All-Star festivities in Philadelphia for 2026.
Washington’s first series following the break will start in Sacramento against the Athletics, July 17–19, and you have to wonder if the Nats will play the Athletics in Las Vegas for the 2028 season.
The Nationals will finish their regular season in 2026 with a three-game weekend series against the New York Mets from Friday through Sunday, Sept. 25–27, matching the earliest end to a regular season in Nationals history set in 2020.
