How soon can the Atlanta Braves clinch home field advantage in the playoffs?

Much of the news this morning regarding the Atlanta Braves has centered around the historic accomplishment of Ronald Acuna Jr. as he created the 40/60 club last night. He certainly deserves all of that attention as he is doing things this season we haven't seen before. However, the Braves' victory over the Nationals last night also got the Braves one step closer to tying up one final loose end on the 2023 regular season.

How soon can the Braves clinch home field advantage?

With just eight games left in the regular season, the Braves are in commanding position to have home field advantage throughout the playoffs by having the best regular season record overall. Currently, there are only two teams that can realistically contend with Atlanta here: the 95-59 Baltimore Orioles and the 94-59 Los Angeles Dodgers.

At 99-55, the Braves have a healthy four game lead over both Baltimore for the top overall seed in the playoffs. Importantly, the Braves also own the tiebreakers over both the Orioles and Dodgers as they won the season series against both of them which effectively gives the Braves another game in hand.

As for how soon the Braves could wrap home field advantage up, that could be as soon as early next week. Assuming the Dodgers and Orioles lose some games over the next few days and the Braves handle their business in their doubleheader against the Nationals on Sunday, wrapping up home field by Monday or Tuesday is a distinct possibility. Baltimore is on a three game losing streak right now and while LA is playing pretty well, either team making up this sort of deficit in eight games is going to be a tall order.

In short, the Braves' struggles last week certainly made the race for home field advantage more interesting than fans wanted it to be. However, Atlanta is still in a great spot to secure the best record in the league and that could happen very soon.

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