2004 Montreal Expos season

The 2004 Montreal Expos season was the 36th and final Major League Baseball season for the Montreal Expos franchise competing under that name and being based in Canada. The team competed as members of the National League East. The Expos played most of their home games at Olympic Stadium in Montreal, while also playing 21 home games at Estadio Hiram Bithorn in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
The Expos finished in fifth and last place in their division, with a 67–95 record, 29 games behind the first-place Atlanta Braves. After the season, the team—which had played in Montreal since its founding as part of the 1969 MLB expansion—relocated to Washington, D.C., and became the Washington Nationals, as MLB returned to Washington for the season after a 33-season absence.

Offseason

December 16, 2003: The Expos traded Javier Vázquez to the New York Yankees for Nick Johnson, Randy Choate, and Juan Rivera.
January 6, 2004: The Expos signed Tony Batista as a free agent.
January 8, 2004: The Expos signed Luis Lopez as a free agent.

Spring training

The Expos held spring training at Space Coast Stadium in Viera, Florida, in 2004. It was their second year of spring training at the facility.

Regular season

Opening Day lineup

Source

Game log

Source

Notable transactions

June 11, 2004: The Expos released Luis Lopez.
July 31, 2004: The Expos sent Orlando Cabrera to the Boston Red Sox as part of a four-team deal. The Chicago Cubs sent Brendan Harris, Alex Gonzalez, and Francis Beltrán to the Expos. The Red Sox sent Nomar Garciaparra and Matt Murton to the Cubs. The Minnesota Twins sent Doug Mientkiewicz to the Red Sox. The Cubs sent minor-league player Justin Jones to the Twins.
September 16, 2004: The Expos sent Alex Gonzalez to the San Diego Padres as part of a conditional deal.

Final days

September 29, 2004: Hours after the announcement of the impending move to Washington, D.C., the Expos played their final game in Montreal, a 9-1 loss to the Florida Marlins before 31,395 fans at Olympic Stadium. On that day the MLB officially recognized the 1994 Expos as "The Best Team in Baseball" with a banner for the center field wall,. The game was almost forfeited in the 8th inning when Expos fans threw golf balls onto the field in hopes of making the game longer.
October 2, 2004: The Expos earned their last win before becoming the Nationals, defeating the New York Mets 6-3. Brad Wilkerson hit the last home run in Expos history in the ninth inning, his 32nd of the year.
October 3, 2004: The New York Mets defeated Montreal 8-1 at Shea Stadium, in the final game as the Montreal Expos. Jamey Carroll scored the last Expos run and Endy Chávez became the final Expo batter in history when he grounded out in the top of the ninth to end the game. Coincidentally, Shea Stadium was where the Expos had played their first-ever game, in 1969.

The final game in Montreal

Scorecard

'''September 29, Olympic Stadium, Montréal, Québec'''

Pitching

Montreal Expos	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
Kim, L	2.0	5	5	2	1	1
Majewski	2.1	2	2	2	1	1
Tucker	0.2	4	2	2	0	1
Horgan	2.0	2	0	0	0	2
Beltran	1.0	1	0	0	0	1
Cordero	1.0	1	0	0	0	2
Totals	9.0	15	9	6	2	8

The final game as the Expos

Scorecard

'''October 3, Shea Stadium, Flushing, New York'''

Pitching

New York Mets	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
Glavine, W,	6.0	3	1	1	4	5
Bell	1.2	1	0	0	0	2
Franco	0.1	1	0	0	0	0
Fortunato	1.0	0	0	0	1	2
TOTALS	9.0	5	1	1	5	9

Attendance

Including both games played in Montreal and "home" games played in San Juan, the Expos drew 749,550 fans during the 2004 season, and were 16th in attendance among the 16 National League teams. Their highest attendance for the season was for their final game in Montreal on September 29, which attracted 31,395 fans to see them play the Florida Marlins, while their lowest was for a game in Montreal on May 5 against the Colorado Rockies, which drew only 3,609 fans. For games played in San Juan, the largest crowd was 16,836 for a game against the San Francisco Giants on May 22, and the smallest was a crowd of 7,436 that came to a game against the Pittsburgh Pirates on July 9.
The Expos lost one home date during the season, when the May 23 "home" game at San Juan against the Giants was rained out and rescheduled to be played as an away game in San Francisco as part of a single-admission doubleheader on August 18. The doubleheader drew 42,296.

Player stats

Batting

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; R = Runs scored; H = Hits; 2B = Doubles; 3B = Triples; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in; AVG = Batting average; SB = Stolen bases
Complete offensive statistics are available .

Pos	Player	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	AVG	SB
C		135	436	40	112	20	3	12	49	.257	0
1B		160	572	112	146	39	2	32	67	.255	13
2B		110	412	51	121	24	0	14	60	.294	3
SS		103	390	41	96	19	2	4	31	.246	12
3B		157	606	76	146	30	2	32	110	.241	14
LF		133	398	45	107	20	6	15	62	.269	3
CF		132	502	65	139	20	6	5	34	.277	32
RF		134	391	48	120	24	1	12	49	.307	6
1B		73	251	35	63	16	0	7	33	.251	6
2B		102	218	36	63	14	2	0	16	.289	5
C		55	139	9	31	6	1	1	11	.223	2
SS		35	133	19	32	7	0	4	16	.241	1
OF		39	127	8	32	10	0	2	14	.252	0
SS		32	107	10	22	5	2	1	4	.206	4
OF		46	84	4	14	2	0	1	10	.167	2
UT		32	62	6	11	1	0	2	6	.177	1
OF		30	63	6	11	1	0	1	6	.175	0
UT		32	60	4	13	4	0	1	3	.217	1
IF		20	50	4	8	2	0	1	2	.160	0
UT		40	44	3	12	2	0	0	0	.273	2
CF		11	42	2	9	0	0	0	1	.214	0
IF		34	43	2	4	0	0	1	1	.093	0
1B		11	26	0	4	0	0	0	3	.154	0
MI		7	14	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000	0
P		34	81	2	20	7	0	1	10	.247	0
P		19	33	0	4	0	0	0	1	.121	0
P		17	29	1	1	0	0	1	1	.034	0
P		41	28	1	6	2	0	0	5	.214	0
P		42	22	0	1	0	0	0	0	.045	0
P		14	25	0	2	0	0	0	0	.080	1
P		11	15	1	1	0	0	0	0	.067	0
P		15	16	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000	0
P		44	11	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000	0
P		51	12	1	1	0	0	0	0	.083	0
P		79	9	0	3	1	0	0	0	.333	0
P		9	6	1	1	0	0	1	2	.167	0
P		45	4	0	1	0	0	0	1	.250	0
P		22	3	2	2	0	0	0	0	.667	0
P		67	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000	0
P		3	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000	0
P		35	2	0	1	0	0	0	0	.500	0
P		11	2	0	1	0	0	0	0	.500	0
P		16	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000	0
P		5	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	–	0
P		2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	–	0
P		18	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	–	0
	Team Totals	162	5474	635	1361	276	27	151	605	.249	109

Pitching

Note: Pos = Position; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; G = Games pitched; GS = Games started; SV = Saves; IP = Innings pitched; H = Hits allowed; R = Runs allowed; ER = Earned runs allowed; BB = Walks allowed; K = Strikeouts
Complete pitching statistics are available

Pos	Player	W	L	ERA	G	GS	SV	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K
SP		11	15	3.60	35	35	0	255.0	234	105	102	83	186
SP		5	10	3.93	19	19	0	116.2	117	53	51	45	61
SP		4	7	5.03	19	19	0	98.1	100	58	55	46	99
SP		3	7	3.40	15	15	0	84.2	98	40	32	20	38
SP		2	4	4.88	16	16	0	72.0	66	41	39	45	54
SP		3	6	5.14	12	12	0	63.0	79	47	36	23	38
CL		7	3	2.94	69	0	14	82.2	68	28	27	43	84
RP		6	12	2.69	81	0	2	90.1	92	30	27	15	63
RP		4	8	6.92	47	9	11	78.0	98	69	60	31	51
RP		4	2	3.72	54	1	0	67.2	73	28	28	17	44
RP		4	1	3.15	47	0	2	40.0	35	18	14	22	30
		4	6	4.58	43	17	0	135.2	145	80	69	55	87
		5	5	5.25	45	14	0	118.1	120	75	69	64	89
		0	3	5.86	36	0	0	27.2	23	19	18	23	18
		1	2	5.40	19	0	0	25.0	26	16	15	13	22
		3	0	1.54	9	2	0	23.1	14	4	4	7	18
		0	1	3.86	16	0	1	21.0	28	15	9	5	12
		0	1	3.93	21	0	0	18.1	16	10	8	8	17
		0	0	7.53	11	0	1	14.1	20	12	12	5	8
		1	2	16.00	3	3	0	9.0	17	16	16	7	10
		0	0	6.75	5	0	0	5.1	7	4	4	5	4
		0	0	13.50	2	0	0	0.2	1	1	1	0	0
	Team Totals	67	95	4.33	162	162	31	1447.0	1477	769	696	582	1032

Awards and honors

Liván Hernández, Silver Slugger Award

League leaders

Liván Hernández, National League Leader, Complete Games, 9
Liván Hernández, National League Leader, Innings Pitched, 255.0
Liván Hernández, National League Leader, 3,927 pitches thrown

All-Stars

2004 Major League Baseball All-Star Game

Liván Hernández, pitcher, reserve

Relocation to Washington

After several years in a holding pattern, MLB began actively looking for a relocation site for the Expos. Some of the choices included Orlando, Florida; Dayton, Ohio; Oklahoma City; Washington, D.C.; San Juan, Puerto Rico; Monterrey, Mexico; Portland, Oregon; Northern Virginia; Norfolk, Virginia; and Charlotte, North Carolina. In the decision-making process, Commissioner Bud Selig added Las Vegas, Nevada to the list of potential Expos homes.
On September 29, 2004, MLB officially announced that the Expos would move to Washington, D.C. in 2005. The move was approved by the owners of the other teams in a 28-1 vote on December 3. In addition, on November 15, 2004, a lawsuit by the former team owners against MLB and former majority owner Jeffrey Loria was struck down by arbitrators, ending legal moves to keep the Expos in Montreal.

Retired numbers ceremony

As a tribute to the Expos, on October 18, 2005, the Montreal Canadiens honoured the departed team by raising an Expos commemorative banner, which lists the retired numbers, to the rafters of the Bell Centre. Gary Carter and Andre Dawson were at the ceremony with Youppi, who was now the Canadiens mascot. The Banner featured all of the Expos retired numbers:

8 Gary Carter, C, 1974-84 & 1992
10 Andre Dawson, OF, 1977–86 and Rusty Staub, OF, 1969-71 & 1979
30 Tim Raines, OF, 1979-90 & 2001
42 Jackie Robinson

Expos in the Washington Nationals Ring of Honor

On August 10, 2010, the Washington Nationals formally presented a new "Ring of Honor" at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C., to honor Major League Baseball Hall of Fame players with ties to the Washington Nationals, original Washington Senators, expansion Washington Senators, Homestead Grays, or Montreal Expos. Gary Carter and Andre Dawson were the former Expos honored in the Ring of Honor on that day. The Expos logo appears next to their names in the Ring of Honor. On May 9, 2015, the Nationals added former Expos and Nationals manager Frank Robinson to the Ring of Honor at Nationals Park.