Report: Nationals Cleared to Play Season Opener in Washington, DC, Amid COVID-19

The Washington Nationals have reportedly received clearance to play their 2020 season-opening series against the New York Yankees at their home stadium of Nationals Park, per Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic.

Jesse Dougherty and Dave Sheinin of the Washington Post reported Thursday that the MLB club had begun exploring other venues for next weekend's games because of coronavirus-related restrictions in the nation's capital.

The Nats and Yanks will help kick off the shortened 60-game regular season next Thursday as part of a doubleheader on ESPN. The San Francisco Giants' matchup with the Los Angeles Dodgers will follow.

Washington and New York have Friday off before playing the final two games of the series Saturday and Sunday. It's their only head-to-head matchup of the campaign, which will see teams play 40 games against divisional opponents and 20 contests against regional foes from the other league (AL East vs. NL East, etc.).

The Nationals are the reigning World Series champions after entering last year's playoffs as a wild card before knocking off the Milwaukee Brewers, Los Angeles Dodgers, St. Louis Cardinals and Houston Astros en route to winning the franchise's first title.

In May, Nats manager Dave Martinez said the club wouldn't raise the banner and distribute the championship rings until fans could be in attendance.

"I'm sure that I speak for everyone in our organization: We're going to celebrate, somehow, some way. ... We want to hang the banner with fans. We want to get our rings with fans. When? We don't know. How? We don't know. But we want them to be involved," Martinez told reporters.

He added: "For me, this is a big deal. A big deal for everybody. So we want to include everybody."

MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said the league wanted to complete games without issue before even considering the potential return of fans.

"I think we need to get on the ground running and get comfortable that we can play games in empty stadiums safely before we move forward with fans," Manfred told Ronald Blum of the Associated Press in late June.

The Nationals' regular-season schedule runs through Sept. 27.

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Bleacher Report's David Gardner interviews athletes and other sports figures for the podcast How to Survive Without Sports.