Braves open NLDS against two-time champion Dodgers

The Atlanta Braves and Los Angeles Dodgers open the National League Division Series Saturday. First pitch is 4 p.m. Eastern at Dodger Stadium, on Fox. It's the same ballpark where Atlanta beat Los Angeles in six games on the way to the 2021 World Series title. Read more: Braves open NLDS against two-time champion Dodgers.

The pairing was set Thursday night, when the Braves beat Philadelphia in a winner-take-all Game 3 to close out the wild-card round. Atlanta now draws the two-time defending champion on the road to open the series. Los Angeles is the first team to repeat as World Series winner in 25 years.

Los Angeles hands the ball to Tarik Skubal, acquired from Detroit at the trade deadline. He finished the season 12-7 with a 2.72 ERA. His postseason track record backs that up. Pitching for the Tigers in last year's wild-card round, Skubal struck out 14 over 7⅔ innings and allowed one run, tying a Detroit postseason strikeout record held by Joe Coleman since 1972.

Related: Braves advances to NLDS

Atlanta can't match that with a conventional starter. Chris Sale started and won Game 1 of the wild-card series, then came back to pitch the final four outs of Thursday's series-clinching Game 3, and isn't an option to start Game 1 of the NLDS. Tyler Mahle started in the wild-card round too, and Martín Pérez has been out since late September with lower back inflammation and isn't expected back for the series. Left-hander Brent Suter is the likeliest pitcher to open a bullpen game, with rookie J.R. Ritchie also in the mix.

Season series favored Atlanta

Atlanta swept Los Angeles at home in August, winning 4-3, then 6-5, then 1-0, before taking two of three in Los Angeles back in May, finishing five of six overall against the two-time champions.

None of that carries into October. Atlanta hasn't won a postseason series since that 2021 championship run. Philadelphia eliminated the Braves in the 2023 NLDS. San Diego ended their season in the 2024 wild-card round, before they'd even reached this round. Last year, Atlanta missed the playoffs entirely, for the first time since 2017, before rebuilding its way back to the division title this year.

Three more Division Series open the same day. The Yankees send Gerrit Cole, who posted a 2.50 ERA in three regular-season starts against Tampa Bay, to face the Rays in Game 1. The White Sox open at Cleveland against the Guardians at 1 p.m. Eastern, and the Padres and Brewers start their series in Milwaukee at 7:30 p.m. Central.

Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy shrugged off the discrepancy. "In '22, we beat the Padres something like 16 times in the regular season and then they beat us in the postseason," he said. "It just doesn't matter."