Both NLDS start Saturday, and they both look to be exciting matchups. On one side of the bracket, the one-seed Milwaukee Brewers will host the four-seed San Diego Padres. On the other side, the two-seed Los Angeles Dodgers will host the three-seed Atlanta Braves. The NLDS is a five-game series, split two-two-one between the home and away teams. They will run Saturday, October 3, through, potentially, Friday, October 9.
Let’s take a look at some key storylines and players to keep an eye on during the 2026 NLDS.
The Padres come off a decisive sweep over the Chicago Cubs in the Wild Card series. They took care of business in their home park over the two games as they stifled the Cubs’ impressive lineup. Their starting pitching, which has been their biggest flaw, helped them out, as good starts from Michael King and Nick Pivetta set them up nicely in both games. The offense did exactly what they wanted it to do, scoring early and often. Fernando Tatis Jr. homered on the first pitch of game one, setting the tone for the rest of the series.
The Brewers will be coming off a first-round bye after locking up the number one seed multiple days before the end of the regular season. They have used that time to rest their star players, especially in their pitching ranks. They have several young pitchers who have been worked a ton this season, making this extra rest crucial. The Brewers, even after locking up their postseason goals relatively early, stayed hot down the stretch, winning 10 of their last 12.
After missing the first month of the season, Chourio has, once again, turned in an impressive season. He plays great defense, runs hard, and always seems to come up in the biggest moments.
Bauers reportedly contemplated retirement before the season, and then decided to have a career year that has him staring down a huge payday. The Brewers’ home run leader has power to every part of the park.
Megill has served as the Brewers’ closer for the better part of two seasons. The flamethrower becomes yet another success story from the Milwaukee pitching lab. It will be interesting to see if Pat Murphy uses him just as a closer, as last year we saw him open a crucial NLDS game.
Tatis set the tone for the Cubs series on the first pitch of the game. After a lengthy home run drought to start the season, he is back to being scary powerful. Tatis vs. Misiorowski is going to be electric.
France was signed to a minor-league deal to open the 2026 season, and yet, he might very well be the Padres MVP. One of the most consistent players on a team that has lacked it all season.
The frontrunner for Reliever of the Year, Miller has dominated all season. I have to believe that he will be available in any and all situations during this series, as you don’t leave a guy like that to stalk in the bullpen when the game is on the line.
Milwaukee has been an offensive machine this year, and they can score in every way imaginable. They have had streaks where they jump out early, and others where they come back late. This series, the key will be to jump on San Diego’s starters early. Not only to establish a threat early in the game, but also because of how dominant the Padres bullpen has been all season.
San Diego is facing a Brewers pitching staff that has been one of the best in the league all year long. In the Padres’ recent hot stretch, their biggest names have gone nuclear, as Tatis, Machado, and Merrill have all been scorching. Their key will be popping that big home run off of a Brewers pitcher to flip a game, as they have the power to do it all the way down the lineup.
Some teams, mostly the ones coming off byes, have announced starting pitchers for at least the first couple of games in the series. It gets a little murkier for the teams that have just played in the wild card. The names in parentheses are potential starters based on how these teams have used their starting rotations.
MIL – Jacob Misiorowski
SD – TBD (Walker Buehler)
MIL – Logan Henderson
SD – TBD (Michael King)
MIL – TBD (Robert Gasser)
SD – TBD (Nick Pivetta)
Atlanta travels to LA after a victory over the Phillies in a win-or-go-home game Thursday night. After winning game one behind a go-ahead three-run home run by Austin Riley, they dropped game two to even the set. The home run ball was key in this series, as in all three games the go-ahead runs were scored via the long ball. Atlanta was forced to exhaust a lot of its bullpen arms to win the series against Philadelphia, so while the bats are hot, the pitching staff could be fatigued going into a five-game series against the Dodgers.
The Dodgers had a bye into the division series as the number two seed in the National League. Some could argue that the Dodgers are perhaps the only team that doesn’t really need the bye, as they have the least to gain from lining up their pitching rotation. Still, after a full 162-game season, the bye is surely appreciated in that LA clubhouse. While their pitching staff is trending towards being fully healthy, they have a few banged-up position players, notably Shohei Ohtani, who spent much of the last couple of months battling multiple injuries.
Ohtani is the biggest name in baseball on the international stage, and he has shown us all why during his big-league tenure. While he may not be pitching this postseason, his bat is still electric. His recent injuries have been a cause for concern, but if he can gut through them, he is a one-man wrecking crew.
Tucker signed a huge deal to come to LA in the offseason, but with only a mediocre season, he has faded into the background amongst their superstar lineup. They say the regular season doesn’t matter if you come up big in October, and that could be significant for a guy like Tucker.
Sasaki has mainly been a starter this season for the Dodgers, but anyone who watched last year’s postseason is reminded of his stunning transformation into a lockdown closer. With a Dodgers rotation that is already packed, look for them to use Sasaki in a creative way again this year.
If they handed out an MVP for the wild card series, it would very likely go to Harris, who had an exceptional series at the plate. He went five for 11 in the series and homered off of Aaron Nola in what would be the deciding blow of game three.
Fuentes, the rookie reliever, pitched in all three games of the series against Philadelphia. Walt Weiss seems to have nothing but confidence in the 21-year-old right-hander, as he continues to throw him in the highest-leverage situations.
Albies has a knack for big swings, especially in the games that mean the most to him and the Braves. He is the longest-tenured member of the Braves, and he lives for the type of baseball that is being played right now.
The Dodgers have to rely on what got them here, which is the same thing that got them to World Series rings the last two seasons: their abundance of talent. Their roster oozes with star power, guys who have come up big time and time again. That goes double for their rotation, all of whom would probably be an ace on 25 other teams. Let them do what they do best.
The Braves, on the other hand, can’t go into the series thinking about the kind of star power radiating from the opposing clubhouse. They need to put their heads down and play smart baseball. Atlanta has the types of players who can make those kinds of plays, and they need to trust in the fact that they will do it on the big stage.
LA – Tarik Skubal
ATL – TBD (Likely Bullpen Game)
LA – TBD (Blake Snell)
ATL – TBD (Tyler Mahle)
LA – TBD (Yoshinobu Yamamoto)
ATL – TBD (Chris Sale)
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