The Los Angeles Dodgers‘ next game is scheduled for Saturday when they will host Game 1 of the National League Division Series at Dodger Stadium.
The opponent is unknown but it will be a familiar foe in either the San Diego Padres or the Atlanta Braves.
As the National League’s top seed and owners of the best record in baseball this season, the Dodgers have secured home-field advantage throughout the postseason. They will face the winner of the Wild Card Series, which features the No. 4 and No. 5 seeds.
The San Diego Padres are the No. 4 seed and have home-field advantage for the entire Wild Card Series, which is a best-of-three.
Los Angeles’ history against the Padres includes a 5-8 record this season. However, the Dodgers have the momentum after taking two of three and clinching the division against San Diego last week.
The last time the two met in the playoffs was in 2022 and the Dodgers limped into the offseason to chants of “Beat L.A.” after an incredible 111-win regular season washed away in five nights.
Los Angeles set a franchise record that season for both wins and winning percentage. They also posted the best run differential in Major League Baseball, which measures the difference between runs scored and runs allowed. Their impressive plus-334 margin outperformed both the Yankees (plus-240) in the American League and the Braves (plus-180) in the National League.
But, the playoffs don’t care about what teams did or didn’t do during the regular season.
The Dodgers and Braves have met in the postseason three times since 2018 with the most recent series coming in 2021.
Atlanta won the NLCS that season against the Dodgers in six games en route to winning the World Series. It was a flip-flop from the previous season which had the Dodgers beating the Braves in seven games before winning the 2020 World Series against the Tampa Bay Rays.
The 2021 pennant was the first for the Braves since 1999. From 2000-2020, Atlanta was one of only 10 franchises to play zero World Series games.
The 88-win Braves didn’t reach a winning record until Aug. 6 that year, marking the latest point in MLB history for a team bound for the World Series to hit .500. However, they swiftly eliminated the 106-win Dodgers in just six games, taking advantage of Los Angeles’ key injuries to Max Muncy, Justin Turner, Max Scherzer, and Clayton Kershaw.
Regardless of who the Dodgers end up playing in the NLDS, they will be prepared. They might not be at their healthiest but as long as they find the timely hitting that eludes them at times, they should be heading toward a nice postseason run.
