The Washington Nationals opened the 2026 regular season in the win column after the offense masked a handful of errors with the team’s ten runs marking the most in team history and first Opening Day win since 2021. The win also put the team in rare standing with the Nationals now technically above .500 for the first time since May 7, 2024.

But it also marked the start of the Blake Butera era, giving the first-year Nationals skipper a win in his major league debut in the role. Butera was hired to replace Dave Martinez back in October, making the 33 year old the the youngest manager in baseball since 1972. While fans will look to replicate the road win in the home opener on April 3 when the Los Angeles Dodgers come to town, doing so in an iconic atmosphere like Wrigley Field made it just as special for Butera.

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“Obviously there’s still 161 more, but happy to get off on the right footing,” Butera said after the win.

“You envision yourself over and over winning the first game and what that’s going to look like and feel like and all those things. But until you’re there and it actually happens and you see just how happy the guys are and how fired up everybody was and how well they played, too, it’s way better than you can imagine.”

It marked a new leaf for the Nationals, who turned heads ahead of opening pitch after the lineup card was released with Andres Chaparro hitting second, CJ Abrams hitting sixth and Keibert Ruiz hitting either. Of course, Cade Cavalli drew the Opening Day nod where he went 3.2 innings while allowing two earned runs and three hits against five strikeouts and three walks. But a trio of home runs, including a pair of two-out two run shots, proved to be the difference with Brad Lord ultimately earning the win.

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“We were fired up, we were ready to play,” said Lord. “The bats showed up and put up a pile of runs on a good starter [Matthew Boyd]. It just shows all the work that we put in in Spring Training, and we look to keep it rolling.”

Washington will look to keep it going when they return to action on Saturday with opening pitch once again set for 2:20 PM ET, this time also on ESPN, as the Nationals look ahead to “turning a leaf,” as center fielder Jacob Young, who accounted for one of the home runs, also noted.

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“It’s awesome for Blake to get that first one, and it’s awesome for a lot of guys in here just to start feeling good on the winning side of the column. It’s a good feeling, and we’re hoping just to keep it going.”