{"id":867817,"date":"2026-10-02T03:42:19","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T03:42:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/867817\/"},"modified":"2026-10-02T03:42:19","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T03:42:19","slug":"dodgers-braves-nlds-is-their-4th-postseason-matchup-in-9-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/867817\/","title":{"rendered":"Dodgers-Braves NLDS is their 4th postseason matchup in 9 years"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">The Dodgers and Braves have spent plenty of time in the last decade at or near the top of the National League standings. The two teams met in the playoffs three times, highlighted by a pair of exciting NLCS matchups each team used as a springboard to a championship.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Now the matchup is set, the Dodgers are set to play the Braves in the National League Division Series beginning on Saturday at Dodger Stadium.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">The Braves took care of the Philadelphia Phillies, beating their NL East foes in three games in the wild card round at Truist Park in Atlanta.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">This round will mark the first playoff matchup between the Dodgers and Braves in five years, after a pair of near misses. After the Dodgers won it all in 2020 and the Braves captured a championship in 2021, Los Angeles and Atlanta had the two best records in the National League in both 2022 and 2023, but in each year both teams won in triple digits and flamed out in the NLDS. The NLCS rubber match never materialized until now.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">During the Dodgers\u2019 title runs in 2024 and 2025, the Braves lost in the wild card round and missed the playoffs altogether last year. But now Atlanta is back, having won the NL East with a 94-68 record.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Braves ace Chris Sale allowed three runs (two earned) in 16 innings against the Dodgers this season with 18 strikeouts in his two starts. The Dodgers won that first start, on May 8, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.truebluela.com\/dodgers-scores-standings\/115203\/freddie-freeman-shohei-ohtani-kyle-tucker-bullpen-braves\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">their only win against Atlanta this season<\/a>, before a 1-0 shutout by Sale on August 27. Sale pitched Tuesday against the Phillies and presumably wouldn\u2019t be available to face the Dodgers until at least Game 2 on Sunday, which was the thinking before Sale pitched an inning and a third in Game 3.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">The 37-year-old Sale has pitched on four days\u2019 rest twice this season, both in April. Now, it\u2019s an open question who Atlanta will slot into the rotation with a day\u2019s break for travel. Meanwhile, by earning the bye, the Dodgers have the luxury to set up their rotation however they see fit for Saturday\u2019s likely blistering Game 1 start.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Dodgers and Braves have spent plenty of time in the last decade at or near the top&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":867818,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[160519,363,99],"class_list":["post-867817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-dodgers-news-notes","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=867817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/867818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=867817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=867817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=867817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}