WASHINGTON - Now that all the excitement of Day 1 in D.C. has died down, the Washington Nationals can’t wait to find out what sort of consistent crowd support they’ll get in their new digs.

If the home opener was a celebration for the team and the 45,596 spectators, the Nationals’ next game Saturday is a sort of test.

With the president back at the White House, and the fireworks packed away, just how many people will show up for a run-of-the-mill, just-one-out-of-162 game?

How loud will they be? Will they applaud and jeer at all the right moments?

And will they make the stands sway the way they did Thursday night during the Nationals’ 5-3 victory over Arizona, the first regular-season major league game in Washington since Sept. 30, 1971?

“I’ve seen this before. In Cleveland, you would have 55,000 people out there opening day — and 10,000 the next day,” said Nationals manager Frank Robinson, a Hall of Famer who played for and managed the Indians. “What I think of as support is when they come out game after game after game. So we’ll wait and see.”

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The Nationals had Friday off, a much-needed chance to kick back, relax and scan the NL East standings. They could enjoy sitting right there on top of the division with a 6-4 record and a three-game winning streak.

The team realizes the surest way to keep enthusiastic fans coming to the ballpark is to keep winning. The novelty of a new club might wear off; the novelty of contending for the playoffs most likely would not.

“Any time you’re in first place, it’s nice to be there as long as you keep it in perspective and understand that we haven’t done anything yet,” Robinson said. “But it’s better to be there than trying to play catch-up.”

Accustomed to home crowds regularly under 10,000 for their games as the Montreal Expos last season, Robinson’s players “were like little kids” on Thursday night, he said, “giggling out there.”

They loved the way the crowd booed when the Diamondbacks’ hitters were announced, and the way the spectators greeted Vinny Castilla with a standing ovation when he came to the plate in the eighth inning just a single shy of hitting for the cycle.

“They’re screaming for us, giving me chills up and down my spine. If that’s going to be the norm, it’s going to be awesome. That’s something we can feed off of. It’s going to be a very, very special year,” outfielder Ryan Church said. “It’s not like Montreal.”

Indeed, much has changed: a new city, new nickname, new uniforms and new players such as Castilla (3-for-3 with four RBIs Thursday) and Jose Guillen (whose five home runs led the majors Friday morning).

They were added to a core group of up-and-coming players who never got much attention while playing in Canada, such as outfielder Brad Wilkerson (32 HRs in 2004) and catcher Brian Schneider (led the majors the past two seasons in throwing out would-be stealers).

“We have some guys on our ballclub who are ready to make their names in this game. The Wilkersons, the Schneiders — they’re ready to establish themselves, and they realize it’s great for them,” said hitting coach Tom McCraw, who played for the Senators and had their last hit before they moved to Texas.

“It’s great for the city because they can get ’em as kids, as adopted kids, and raise them as their own.”

So all that seemingly is left to give the Nationals what they’ve longed for — to be just like any other club — is new ownership. Major League Baseball’s other 29 teams own the franchise, and the plan is to sell it sometime during this season. Eight potential ownership groups reportedly put down $100,000 to enter the buying process.

A new boss would mean more stability and, presumably, a higher payroll.

Second baseman Jose Vidro was drafted by the Expos in 1992 and has played his entire professional career with the organization. As the longest-tenured current member of the franchise, he knows how it feels to see top-flight teammates such as Vladimir Guerrero and Larry Walker leave because the club didn’t spend the money to keep them.

“Hopefully we can get an owner pretty soon,” Vidro said. “That’s the main thing right now. We’ve got a pretty good team, but hopefully somebody can step up pretty soon, and that’ll be the last thing to give us that push.”