NLCS Rematch: Braves Looking for Revenge Against Dodgers

With the Los Angeles Dodgers taking care of the San Francisco Giants on Thursday night we now know who the Atlanta Braves will play in the NLCS. 

We all remember what happened a year ago with the Atlanta Braves blowing a 3-1 series lead to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 2020 NLCS.

That Dodgers team would go on to win the 2020 Covid-19 World Series over the Tampa Bay Rays — a matchup I believe the Braves would have won as well.

Now a year later, they get a chance in the rematch.

And if the Braves are going to break through and get back to the World Series, it only makes sense that they go through the team that has eliminated them from the postseason two of the last three years.

Braves v Dodgers — The Rematch

Let’s first point out that these two teams are slightly different than what they were a year ago.

The Braves don’t have Ronald Acuna Jr., Marcell Ozuna, Nick Markakis, Bryse Wilson, Shane Greene, or Mark Melancon.

However, they do have Charlie Morton, Joc Pederson, Eddie Rosario, and hopefully Jorge Soler.

As for the Dodgers, they are without Max Muncy, Dustin May, and Clayton Kershaw due to injury as well as Joc Pederson and Enrique Hernandez.

They do now have Braves nemesis, Trea Turner, along with David Price, Corey Knebel, and Max Scherzer.

I think you can make the argument this Dodgers team is better and have been more battle-tested with their heated matchups against the Giants all season.

And it’s hard to say this Braves team is better without Acuna and Ozuna, but they are much better pitching-wise with Morton.

Atlanta had Bryse Wilson and A.J. Minter start games in the NLCS last year — and both were brilliant in those starts.

But I think you have to feel a lot more comfortable with the Braves starting pitching going into this series.

Looking at the regular-season matchup, Atlanta won 2-of-3 at home against the Dodgers back in June but then were swept by them in LA at the end of August/early September.

However, all three of those games in LA were close with two of them being one-run losses.

Overall, the Dodgers outscored the Braves 27-23, so these two teams were pretty even in the games they played this year.

The good thing to note there is the Braves do have home-field advantage. And the Dodgers had to use Julio Urias and Max Scherzer to get through Game 5 in the NLDS.

You’re going to see just about every national media outlet and expert pick the Dodgers in this series, but these two teams are a lot closer than most will think. This rematch should be a lot of fun.