On the day they clinched a playoff berth earlier than any team in the past 15 years, the Washington Nationals stuck around. After a 3-2 victory over the Phillies on Sunday that reduced their magic number to one, the NL East champs stuck around for an extra 90 minutes, glued to the flat-screens in the home clubhouse, and watched Miami lose in extra innings. By the time the Marlins game ended and bottles were popping in D.C., the Dodgers game was well underway. But the Nationals didn’t stick around to watch that one because, well, it didn’t matter. With their magic number at zero, they already had a ticket to the dance. It didn’t matter that the Dodgers were in complete free fall. It didn’t matter that their cushion over Washington for the NL’s top seed had gone from seemingly insurmountable to decidedly surmountable in barely more than a fortnight. None of it mattered. Five days later, with those very same Dodgers in the District for a three-game weekend series, it still doesn’t matter. At least not to the Nationals. read more http://www.espn.com/blog/washington...of-the-dodgers-downfall-dont-believe-the-hype
