Last night, the Washington Nationals won their 82nd game of the season, defeating the Atlanta Braves 6-4. The win clinched a 4third consecutive winning season. They have won 80 or more every year since 2011. They also went 81-81 in 2005.

The last time that happened in D.C. – 1930-1933 when the original AL franchise

				G	W	L
1933	Washington Senators	153	99	53
1932	Washington Senators	154	93	61
1931	Washington Senators	156	92	62
1930	Washington Senators	154	94	60

The ’33 Nats, managed by future AL president Joe Cronin, were the last pennant winners in the Nation’s Capital, failing to the New York Giants in the World Series that year in five games.

Walter Johnson managed the 1929-1932 Nats.

The 1912-1915 teams also had 80+ wins and winning records, but never finished closer than 6½ games back.

The Nats have as many winning seasons this decade than the post-WWII did Senator.

The current Nats lead the NL East by 9 games. The magic number to clinch the division is 10 as seen above. We’ve come along way since the “Nats Fans 10” sign near the scoreboard walk. What, were you expecting Ronnie Belliard?

A win this afternoon (4:05 p.m. baseball for the late work day and ride home!) over the Braves and the magic number goes down to 8. They have the best winning percentage in the league and are tied with the Los Angeles Dodgers for the most wins in the league and have two games in hand. The 2012 Nats also had the best record in the NL.

What I’m trying to say — right now is a really, really good time to be a D.C. baseball fan.

Let’s hope that it’s the BEST time.

And Ryan Zimmerman is staking BP too! – Nats Enquirer

Photo “Nats Fans 10” by flickr user Cathy T used under Attribution 2.0 Generic Creative Commons