The Post Sports Live crew discusses whether the Nationals would be better off facing the Pittsburgh Pirates or the San Francisco Giants in the first round of the MLB playoffs. (Post Sports Live/The Washington Post)

The Post Sports Live crew discusses whether the Nationals would be better off facing the Pittsburgh Pirates or the San Francisco Giants in the first round of the MLB playoffs. (Post Sports Live/The Washington Post)

Few teams get to take a victory lap that lasts for an entire homestand. But that’s the deserved good fortune of the Washington Nationals, already runaway champions of the National League East, who will play seven games in six days at Nationals Park this week as they try to clinch the best record in the NL and grab home-field advantage through the NLCS if they advance that far.

Let’s see a show of hands if you said (aloud) in April, when Atlanta beat the Nats in five of six games, that when the last week of the regular season arrived the Nats would have stomped Atlanta into a puddle of mush, 161 / 2 games behind. Or that Atlanta, which once led the division by 31 / 2 games, would respond to its distress by firing its classy general manager Frank Wren on Monday.

With their Braves issues entirely solved, the Nats, and Manager Matt Williams, now talk every day about the importance of achieving their league’s best record — to preserve team momentum, to keep their sharp form of the past 104 games (.644) and for the inherent advantage of home-field edge.

When the Dodgers lost in the 13th inning Monday night in Los Angeles, they fell three games behind Washington and four games behind in the loss column. That’s probably insurmountable. But the Nats also prevail if the teams end with the same record because Washington won the head-to-head series four games to two. That insane 14-inning 26-player Nats win in L.A. three weeks ago, in their final meeting, when Adam LaRoche pinch-hit in the ninth inning and ended up with five RBI, would break the tie.

Put it all together and the Nats probably already have best record and No. 1 seed in the NL on ice. That’s nice. But it would be so much nicer if it meant anything. Anything at all.

The Post Sports Live crew makes a case for Nationals manager Matt Williams to win manager of the year for the National League after leading the team back to the playoffs. (Post Sports Live/The Washington Post)

In almost every sport being the “top seed” is a distinction that carries at least some weight and, at times, can mean more than any other factor. Right? Come on, say it with me, “Right?”

No, wrong.

Baseball playoffs aren’t like any other sport; it’s about thrills and entertainment. But baseball is a large-sample game that doesn’t lend itself to small-sample analysis. It’s simply impossible, and always has been, to accurately identify The Best Team with a postseason system of short series.

“Other sports talk about parity, but in baseball there’s almost no difference between the teams that are good enough to make the [final eight],” Ryan Zimmerman said on Tuesday. “That’s what makes baseball so much fun to watch in October. It’s such a game of streaks. Who gets hot? Can any one team win three out of five from any other? Come on, of course.”

On the other hand, that same reality means that baseball’s playoff pressure may be the most intense of any sport — because “mere” superiority in ability carries less weight in a short series.

“In the NFL and NBA, a lot of the best teams are built around one player — a great quarterback or a star like LeBron James,” added Zimmerman, pointing out that even a star pitcher only hurls in one game every five days. “Baseball is so much more a team sport. And so many things have to go your way.”

Baseball fans know this — in a general sense. But drill down and it’s even more dramatic. That’s why there’s even more reason for the Nats, and their fans, to enjoy this week’s victory lap. A division title, and the best record in a whole league, is an utterly earned honor. What comes next is mostly madness.

1 of 25 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × Washington Nationals win the NL East View Photos Washington’s 3-0 win over the second -place Braves sends the Nationals to the playoffs for the second time in three years. Caption Washington’s 3-0 win over the second -place Braves sends the Nationals to the playoffs for the second time in three years. Nationals relief pitcher Drew Storen is mobbed after closing out the ninth inning as Washington clinches the National League East title in Atlanta. Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue.

Since the arrival of wild cards in baseball (and a three-tiered playoff system) in 1995, more teams that had the best record in their league have been knocked out of the playoffs in the first round (14) than have made it to the World Series (13). The Nats and Washington know all about this since it happened to them in 2012. That wasn’t an anomaly. It was simply the unavoidable cruelty of October baseball.

Since ’95, there have been 38 teams with their league’s best record. What’s it worth? In the first round, quite a bit. The No. 1 seeds have a 24-14 record in division series — a rare lopsided number in baseball. After that, you might as well flip coins to pick a favorite. In league championship series, those “top seeds” have gone 13-11. And when they’ve reached the World Series, they were 7-6.

“I don’t think it’s a coin flip,” General Manager Mike Rizzo said Tuesday night. “I think the best team in baseball usually wins. And we’re going to keep the pedal to metal.”

An even meaner trend has emerged in the NL in this century. I can’t explain it. It may be temporary. Of the 14 teams since 2000 that had the NL’s best record, none — that’s n-o-n-e — won the World Series and only two of those “best” teams even got there. In fact, seven of them were knocked out instantly in the five-game division series, where small-sample luck plays the largest role. These 14 teams were exceptional clubs that won an average of 97.9 games, more than the Nats (91-64 entering Tuesday) likely will.

So if, as seems likely, the Nats play either the fancy pedigree Giants or the scruffy underdog Pirates in the division series, don’t be too sure you know which matchup is best. The Bucs are the hot club.

“Baseball is a completely different animal when you step into October,” said Williams, who played in the World Series for the Giants, Indians and Diamondbacks. “You must play seamless baseball.”

Actually, it takes a lot more than seamless precision to win even one October series — much less three series in a row. But, granted “seamless” is probably the best place to start.

From winning a division crown to advancing through the playoffs, “it gets harder and harder every level. As we learned two years ago,” Zimmerman said.

If the Nats reach the World Series, or win it, their characters will be extolled. If they get knocked out in the division series again, they’ll get ripped for having no character whatsoever.

Fine, whatever. Believe what you want. For me, the only kind of team that may have a slight advantage is one that expects to get knocked down, expects to see its own blood, but also assumes that it will at least continue to get back on its feet to see what large object will fall on its heads next.

Cussedness can’t be measured. But the Nats should probably spend more time focusing on “how will we react when we’re up to our butt in alligators” — because that almost always happens — than fretting if Gio Gonzalez or Tanner Roark is their fourth starter or if Rafael Soriano should be in the bullpen.

This is the week for the Nats’ victory lap, a night after night celebration earned over six grueling months. They and their fans should enjoy it because, as Williams knows, “October is a different animal.”

Which critter? Oh, prob’ly just your average postseason alligator: 11 feet, 800 pounds. Happy hunting.

For more by Thomas Boswell, visit washingtonpost.com/boswell.