WASHINGTON – So it’s come to this, the Braves with a opportunity to clinch the division title on home field or their new rival and the defending NL East champions, the Nationals. Where that #NATITUDE sign staring at them from the center-field wall would sure look nice, or ironic, or something, as a backdrop for a victory celebration, wouldn’t it?

  The Braves could do it today by sweeping a doubleheader here at Nationals Park, or they could do it by winning one today and then taking tomorrow’s series finale. Either way, two head-to-head wins against Washington will knock out the remaining four games on the Braves’ magic number.

  “Symbolism of us clinching in Washington? Sure, that’d be (nice),” said pitcher Kris Medlen, who remembers the criticism the Braves heard last season from some media members and players on other teams for celebrating when the Braves clinched a spot in the Wild Card game.

  “Us getting crap last year about celebrating (winning a spot in) a one-game playoff. I mean, you see how hard it is to make it to the playoffs,” Medlen said.

   The Nats have been reminded of how hard  it is  this year. Picked by most to win the NL pennant, they’re scratching and clawing now to try to catch a few teams  ahead of them and win one of the two wild-card spots.

  “The Nationals (are) possibly getting in, possibly not,” Medlen said. “They were on top last year, now they’re just trying to get in. So you see how hard it is  every  year to maintain that consistency and make it to the playoffs. So we don’t take anything for granted.”

  Medlen smiled then and added, “Let us clinch, we’re not afraid to party.”

  They’ll do it late tonight here at Nats park if they can sweep the doubleheader. Or tomorrow afternoon if they win only one today and then take the finale. If they win only one or no games here in Washington, the Braves will likely clinch at Wrigley Field, where most in the crowd will be a lot more interested in tossing back several Old Styles than worrying about the Braves celebrating on their home field.

  The Nats? They’d really like to at least stall the Braves’ seemingly inevitable clinching celebration and make them get it done in another city.

  Two out of three. That’s what the Braves need to do, against a Washington team they’ve beaten in 16 out of their last 20 meetings, including seven in a row here at Nationals Park. But that’s two out of three against a Nationals team that’s only lost one of its past nine games while playing a lot better baseball recently than the Braves have been playing.

  The Nationals have been on fire while the Braves have been spinning their wheels.

  The Nats are are 8-1 with a 2.11 ERA and .318 batting average in their past nine games, with 20 homers and 61 runs (6.8 per game) in that stretch. The Braves are 4-7 with a 3.30 ERA and puny .197 batting average in their past 11 games, with only 32 runs including two or fewer in six games during that stretch.

   With few notable exceptions, Atlanta’s hitters have not been doing their part lately.

  “We definitely have to get better,” Braves hitting coach Greg Walker said. “We’re going through one of those stretches where we’re scuffling right now. And every time we’ve scuffled we’ve just looked and said, we’ve got to get more guys that are good hitters and not just sluggers. And every time, they’ve responded. Someone has stepped up and gotten hot.”

  The Braves need someone elsebesides Freddie Freeman and Chris Johnson to get hot. And if they want to clinch here in D.C., they need it now.

  • Today’s matchups: It’s Mike Minor against veteran righty Dan Haren in this afternoon’s doubleheader opener, and journeyman Freddy Garcia against Nats rookie Tanner Roark (6-0, 1.30 ERA) making his third major league start in the 7:05 p.m. nightcap.

  Minor is 2-2 with a 4.79 ERA in his past six starts, after going 11-5 with a 2.76 ERA in his 23.

  He’s 7-4 with a 2.65 ERA in 14 road starts, including 1-3 despite a 2.91 ERA in his past five. The Braves scored one run while he was in the game in each of his past three road losses, including games in which Minor allowed two runs in eight innings and two runs in seven innings.

   Against the Nats, Minor is 3-2 with a 5.03 ERA in eight starts, with a 7.04 ERA, .414 opponents’ average and no decisions in two this season.

   Haren is 5-2 with a 3.59 ERA in his past 10 starts, with 50 strikeouts and nine walks in 52-2/3 innings. He held the Mets to one hit and one walk with eight strikeouts in six scoreless innings Wednesday, after giving up 15 hits and 12 runs in 5-2/3 total innings over his previous two starts.

   He’s 5-5 with a 6.00 ERA in 12 home starts, including 2-4 with a 6.94 ERA in his past seven.

   Haren is 1-0 with a 1.00 ERA in two games (one start) against the Braves this season, his only appearances against them since 2010. He allowed four hits and one run in eight innings of a May 2 win in Atlanta.

   In two relief appearances vs. the Braves, Roark allowed two hits and one walk with six strikeouts in six scoreless innings.

   • OK, out of time before first pitch. Let’s close with what should be a hit song by perhaps the most underrated great rocker going, Ted Leo. You can hear it by clicking here. Check him out if you like your rock music smart and meaningful. (Did that sound pretentious of me? Sorry.)

“BALLAD OF THE SIN EATER” by Ted Leo & the Pharmacists

When you run, digger, runner, listener, thief
You carry it all with you

Today I woke up uncertain
And you know that gives me the fits
So I left this land of fungible convictions
Because it seemed like the pits

When I say convictions
I mean it's something to abjure
And when I say uncertain
I mean to doubt I'll not turn out a caricature

So I set off in search of my forebears
'Cause my forbearance was in need
But the only job I could get in dear old Blighty
Was working on the railway between Selby and Leeds

So I took a ferry to Belfast
Where I had cause to think
They wanted none of my armchair convictions
But nobody seemed to mind when I was putting on the drinks

You didn't think they could hate you, now did you?
You didn't think they could hate you, now did you?
You didn't think they could hate you, now did you?
Ah, but they hate you, they hate you 'cause you're guilty

So I stayed out all night in Ibixa
By way of San Sebastian
Where they said "yankee, you better watch what you're saying
Unless you're saying it in Basque or in Catalan"

So all the way east to Novi-Sad
Nary a bridge was to be seen
But mother Russia, she laid her pontoons on down
So I crossed over, if you know what I mean

Then on the road to Damascus
Yes, the scales, they fell from my eyes
And the simplest lesson I learned at the mount of olives
That everybody lies

And the French foreign legion
You know they did their best
But I never believed in T.E. Lawrence
So how the hell could I believe in Beau Gest?

You didn't think they could hate you, now did you?
You didn't think they could hate you, now did you?
You didn't think they could hate you, now did you?
Ah, but they hate you, make no mistake, they hate you

So I spent a night in Kigali
In a five diamond hotel
Where maybe someday they'll to the watusi
On down in Hutu hell

I fell in with a merchant marine
Who promised to take me home
But when I woke up all beaten and bloodied
I couldn't tell if it was Jersey or Sierra Leone

You didn't think they could hate you, now did you?
You didn't think they could hate you, now did you?
You didn't think they could hate you, now did you?
Ah, but they hate you, they hate you 'cause you're guilty

So, you didn't think they could hate you, now did you?
You didn't think they could hate you, now did you?
You didn't think they could hate you, now would you?
Ah, but they hate you, make no mistake, they hate you

And the knocking in my head
Just like the knocking at my door
And maybe it was me or maybe it was my brother
But either me or me and him went down to the bar

Where I got seven powers in me
For to give me the cure
When seven powers failed to spin me
I had to get me seven more

And when I say me
I mean my brain
And when I say give me the cure
I mean to kill the pain

And when I say kill the pain
I mean to get the devil out
And when I say devil
I mean the manifestation of doubt

You didn't think they could hate you, now did you?
You didn't think they could hate you, now did you?
You didn't think they could hate you, now did you?
Ah, but they hate you, they hate you 'cause you're guilty

So, you didn't think they could hate you, now did you?
You didn't think they could hate you, now did you?
You didn't think they could hate you, now would you?
Ah, but they hate you, make no mistake, they hate you