The Baltimore Orioles are a major league baseball team headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland. The Orioles are a part of the American League East division in Major League Baseball.
The Beltway Series, or Battle of the Beltways, is a rising regional rivalry between the Orioles and the adjacent Washington Nationals. The Orioles have a 48–38 advantage over the Nationals in the series.
The Washington Nationals are a Washington, D.C.-based professional baseball franchise. The Nationals are a part of the National League East division in Major League Baseball. While a new stadium was being built, the team played in RFK Stadium from 2005 to 2007.
The Beltway Series
The Beltway Series is a Major League Baseball (MLB) interleague rivalry series between the Baltimore Orioles and the Washington Nationals, dubbed “The Battle of the Beltways” by the franchises.
The Orioles play in the American League’s (AL) East division, while the Nationals play in the National League’s (NL) East division. The Baltimore Beltway (I-695) and the Capital Beltway (I-495), which serve Baltimore, Maryland, and Washington, D.C., respectively, are the inspiration for the series’ name.
The notion that the Nationals and Orioles have a rivalry is debatable in and of itself.
Despite the Beltway Series’ marketing as a “Battle of the Beltways” and some Baltimore and Washington baseball fans’ animosity toward each other’s teams and cities, some observers – both sports journalists and fans – question whether a rivalry between the Nationals and the Orioles truly exists, arguing that it is a “manufactured” rivalry born of the media, marketing, interleague play, and coincidental geographical proximity rather than history or the significance of the games.
