Natty's debut, hot dog hats make for doggone fun weekend at Nats Park

This story was excerpted from Jessica Camerato's Nationals Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

WASHINGTON -- The Nationals were top dogs this weekend at Nationals Park.

The Nats debuted their new official team dog, Natty, on Friday, the same game they celebrated Hot Dog Night.

Natty was the star of the show in the Nationals’ 3-2 win over the Orioles. Players gravitated pregame to the 8-week-old golden retriever and labrador retriever mix, who enjoyed his afternoon playing with toys and getting lots of pets during batting practice.

Jake Irvin, Brad Lord and Mitchell Parker gathered around Natty after they finished their warmups. A few minutes later, Nasim Nuñez sat down on the ground to give belly rubs.

“He's adorable,” said Jacob Young. “It makes you miss your dogs at home, for sure. I like the name. I'm a fan.”

The Nationals partnered with Canine Companion and Eukanuba to add Natty to their roster. He is being trained as a service dog with his puppy raisers, Jackie and Laura, over the next 18 months.

To hone his socialization skills, Natty will spend time at Nationals Park with staff, players and fans.

“I feel like dogs are pretty innocent,” said James Wood. “[They bring] good vibes, good energy.”

Meantime, Hot Dog Night was a hot ticket. The Nationals recorded a sellout crowd of 38,912. The first 20,000 fans in attendance received a “Bad Day to be a Hot Dog” hat.

With dogged determination, fans consumed over 28,000 franks during the game.

The special concessions items included the Screech Dog (an all-beef frank, fried spam, chargrilled pineapple, sriracha aioli and salsa verde), the Flamin’ Korean Mozz Hot Dog (a crispy Korean-style corn dog with mozzarella, sausage and Hot Cheetos topping), hot dog fries (shoestring-cut crispy fried hot dogs with chipotle ranch dipping sauce), pigs in a blanket and corn dogs.

Nationals Park also sold a specialty cocktail, Dragged Through the Garden. The frozen pickle margarita was garnished with a sport pepper and Vienna sausage toothpick, topped with a sprinkle of celery salt.

And like a dog with a bone, the Nationals persisted for a hard-fought one-run victory that night.