Nats begin 2024 in Cincinnati before home opener vs. Pirates

As they prepare to open the second half of the 2023 season, the Nationals already know who they’re going to play and when in 2024.

Major League Baseball unveiled next year’s schedule this afternoon, an earlier-than-usual announcement that coincides with the final day of the All-Star break.

The Nats are scheduled to begin next season on the road March 28 against the Reds. It’s only the third time they’re ever opened on the road against a non-division foe, but the second time they’ve done so in Cincinnati, having also been there on Opening Day 2018 in Davey Martinez’s managerial debut.

Following that three-game road series, the Nationals will come right back to D.C. for an April 1 home opener against the Pirates. It’s the first time they’ve faced Pittsburgh in an opener and will be a welcome break from the usual tradition of opening against a fellow National League East opponent like the Mets or Braves.

Click here for the 2024 schedule.

Other noteworthy dates on the calendar:

* The Nationals host the Mets on July 4, the finale of a four-game series, with the traditional 11:05 a.m. first pitch assumed.

* The Nats and Orioles again play a home-and-home interleague series, with games in D.C. on May 7-8 and in Baltimore on Aug. 13-14.

* The Nationals will be in Los Angeles on April 15 for Jackie Robinson Day festivities against the Dodgers.

* In accordance with MLB’s new balanced schedule, the Nats will again face every American League team (except the Orioles) once, with the teams they met this year on the road coming to Washington and vice versa. Among the notable series against AL teams at Nationals Park: April 19-21 against the Astros, Aug. 9-11 against the Angels (Anthony Rendon’s long-awaited return to D.C.) and Aug. 26-28 against the Yankees.

* After making four separate trips to California in the first half of this season alone, the Nats will make only two trips there in 2024. The first of those (April 8-17) knocks out three West Coast teams in one trip, with a full week spent in the Bay Area facing the Giants and Athletics (possibly their final trip to Oakland if that franchise relocates to Las Vegas) before heading south to face the Dodgers.

* The regular season concludes Sept. 27-29 against the Phillies at home.