Nat’s Magic Number: -2

TEDDY WINS!!!! (Greg Fiume/Getty Images)

By virtue of their 5-1 win yesterday, our Washington Nationals (formerly your Montreal Expos)  have the best record in MLB (98-64).  That gives the Nats home field advantage for as long as they are in the playoffs.

Due to an anomaly we don’t pretend to understand, the teams with home field advantage in the upcoming NLDS play the first two games on the road at the home field of the Wild Card team.  We figure that is because a wild card player got a hit during the fourth inning of the All-Star game while a division winner struck out during that same important inning…or something like that…

So the Nats will play the winner of the Wild Card Playoff between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Atlanta Braves.  Those two playoff on Friday at 5 p.m.  The Nats will then play the winner of that game on Sunday and Monday in either Atlanta or St. Louis before hosting their first playoff game since Franklin Delano Roosevelt was President on Wednesday, October 10.

The Nationals finished the season 10-8 against the NL East rival Braves and 4-3 against the Cardinals.