Given the number of teams ahead of the Nats in both the Wildcard race and NL East, here are my estimated EFFECTIVE number of games behind:
NL East -- add up all of the games behind the three teams who are ahead -- 16 games.
Wildcard -- add up all of the games behind the several teams who are ahead and divide by two (because there are two WC spots) -- 14 games.
That's the reality -- At the very least, re-tooling is in order.