Washington Nationals win National League East title that may be first of many The Nationals laid the foundation stone of future success Monday night in Nationals Park by clinching the championship of the National League East Division. Pay little attention to the way the Nats put a flag beside the name "Washington" for the first time since 1933. The Nats drove 96 nails, all wins, in the Atlanta coffin this season; the Braves drove the last into their own, losing 2-1 in Pittsburgh while the Nats fell at home to Philadelphia, 2-0. There's no such thing as "backing in" with a record of 96-64. October's baseball postseason will have to contain remarkable feats for the Nats to surpass the stature within the sport and the self-confidence inside their own clubhouse that this accomplishment provides. The Nats now hold a genuine title, a division pennant that authenticates them as only the words "first place" - captured over a six-month battle - can confer in baseball. "This is a huge feel, winning the National League East," Nationals General Manager Mike Rizzo said. Are you kidding me? This division is as tough as any. We won it. Now we're setting our sights higher. The Nats will not arrive on MLB's big stage this weekend as a wild card facing a flimsy one-game play-in. Instead, they'll be one of the elite six teams that get a bye into MLB's Division Series round, the first time D.C."s made any baseball prom in 79 years. Crisp blue-and-red five-year-old Nationals Park was the only appropriate place for this raucous clinching celebration. How could St. Louis, or any other city, suffice? Since 1971, D.C. has had a three-phase project: get a big-league team back, build it a state-of-the-art ballpark and put a first-place team in it. That wasn't so tough, was it? Only 41 years. "Great, great, very proud," Nationals owner Ted Lerner said. But it's also the town can enjoy it. There's been some pain before but in life or business, there always is. We're just gonna keep building the organization. The Nats iced their division crown by a three-game margin over the perennially excellent Atlanta Braves. Perhaps as important for long-term impact, the Nats left the rest of what was considered a powerful division so far in their wake that you can barely glimpse the Phillies, Mets and Marlins, who are a respective 16, 23 and 29 games in arrears. Now, for this clinching moment at least, let the record show the Nats are tied for the best record in baseball, first among 30. When the Nats finally did something right, they forsook D.C. ancient baseball vice (modesty) and went the whole hog. Perhaps casual fans don't grasp the difference between what the Nats have accomplished and what a wild-card spot, which they clinched 11 days ago, would have meant. Ask any player which matters more: simply getting into the playoffs, winning a play-in game and perhaps even capturing a quick five-game Division Series, or going 96-64 to own the N.L. East. There's no comparison. In baseball, the six-month season is considered truth serum that reveals inherent value.