On Sunday night, television viewers in Cuba saw what they haven’t seen in more than 50 years: a Major League Baseball game.

Even though they lost last night’s game, the Nationals had plenty of cause to celebrate by clinching the National League East and giving D.C. its first first-place baseball team in nearly 80 years.

Spectators at last night’s game between the Nationals and Atlanta Braves were presented with a special video tribute to soon-to-retire Chipper Jones, the third baseman who has tormented the Nationals for much of the past eight seasons.

Even with the Bryce Harper drama all taken care of, the Nationals are about to be busy, busy bees. Starting tonight, the team will play games on 16 consecutive days before finally getting a day off on September 2. With the daily grind, extensive traveling (nine of the games are on the road), and manager Jim Riggleman’s love of musical chairs, let’s set the over/under for the number of different batting orders (minus the pitching spot) at 6.5. We’ll even give you a freebie on September 1st, when the roster expands to 40 players. (Note: Your prize will either be the pride that comes with being right or the humility that comes with being incorrect…your perceived equivalent monetary value may vary.)

>> If you’ve ever thought about having a wedding of any kind, we’d recommend stopping by Olsson’s Courthouse store tonight to listen to The New Yorker’s Rebecca Mead, whose most recent work explores the sinister workings of the $160 billion wedding industry and has been the talk of the internets of late. Tomorrow we’ll dig up information on the best ways to elope for anyone who was in attendance. Mead reads from One Perfect Day:…

This entry was written by DCist contributor Benjamin Kabak. After taking two of three from the Philadelphia Phillies this week, the Nationals return to the confines of RFK Stadium to face the division-rival Atlanta Braves in a three-game series this weekend. If the weather holds up, that is. Thursday’s 10-4 drubbing of the Phillies capped off a successful week for the Nats as Frank Robinson became just the 52nd manager to reach the 1000-win plateau….

Devastating? Gut-wrenching? Demoralizing? Time to dust off your thesaurus to find the most appropriate word to describe the Nationals’ _____________ (adjective of your choice) 9-7 loss to the Atlanta Braves yesterday afternoon at RFK. No matter how you say it, this one hurt. Bad. Despite overcoming a 6-0 deficit and grabbing a 7-6 lead courtesy of a furious five-run rally in the bottom of the eighth, Chad Cordero coughed up three runs in the ninth…

There are 1001 baseball clichés that can be used to describe the Nationals’ recent skid and 7-11 record in July, and even though last night’s loss marked the inevitable return of the Atlanta Braves to the top of the NL East heap (Nats and Braves own identical 54-41 records), maybe it’s time to dust off a tried-and-true cliché that should act as a Band-Aid and a mantra for the DC baseball fan’s soul: “It’s…

After dropping three of four in Milwaukee over the weekend, the Nationals hit the reset button and return home for a seven game homestand, welcoming NL West bottom-feeder Colorado to DC for a three game series that begins tonight. The Nats lead the NL East by 1.5 games over the Atlanta Braves, who split a four game series with the NY Mets over the weekend. The good news is that the Nats have played…

This DCist finally got to see a baseball game at RFK yesterday afternoon when Nationals met Atlanta for the final game of their first-ever homestand. Having lucked into six tickets — a trio of 100-level seats just above first base and a trio of 300-level seats not far away — this DCist and two co-workers knew what we had to do: scalp the 300-levels for beer money. And so we did, making it into the…