Atlanta has one healthy starter and he isn't available until Game 2.
So the Braves open the National League Division Series in Los Angeles on Saturday afternoon with Dylan Dodd, a left-hander from a town of 579 people who has not started a major league game since 2023, against Tarik Skubal.
How to watch
Braves at Dodgers, NLDS Game 1
Saturday, Oct. 3, 4 p.m. ET / 1 p.m. PT
Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles
TV: FOX
Spanish: FOX Deportes
Streaming: FOX One and Fubo
Joe Davis calls it with John Smoltz and Ken Rosenthal.
National League games are on FOX and FS1 this round. American League games are on TBS and truTV. The Wild Card round was on NBC and Peacock.
FOX is free over the air with an antenna in most markets and carried on YouTube TV, Hulu Live, Fubo, Sling and DirecTV Stream. FS1 requires a package that includes it.
Lineups
Atlanta: Drake Baldwin DH, Ronald Acuna Jr. RF, Ozzie Albies 2B, Matt Olson 1B, Michael Harris II CF, Mauricio Dubon LF, Austin Riley 3B, Sean Murphy C, Ha-Seong Kim SS.
Los Angeles: Mookie Betts SS, Shohei Ohtani DH, Will Smith C, Freddie Freeman 1B, Teoscar Hernandez LF, Kyle Tucker RF, Andy Pages CF, Max Muncy 3B, Tommy Edman 2B.
Atlanta's pitching problem
Chris Sale threw 95 pitches in Game 1 of the Wild Card Series and recorded the final four outs of Game 3. He is not available before Game 2.
Tyler Mahle pitched Game 2 and is not available before Game 3.
Bryce Elder, returning from a procedure to remove bone fragments from his right knee, and Martin Perez, on the injured list with back discomfort, are both out for this series. Spencer Strider, Spencer Schwellenbach, Hurston Waldrep, Joey Wentz and Joe Jimenez are all on the 60-day list.
That leaves a bullpen game.
Dylan Dodd gets the ball
Dodd is from Bismarck, Illinois, population 579. Asked in 2023 who the most famous person from his hometown was, he shrugged and said he didn't know, maybe him.
He was throwing 88 mph coming out of junior college at Kankakee. Atlanta drafted him in the third round in 2021 out of Southeast Missouri State, partly to free up bonus pool money for seventh-rounder AJ Smith-Shawver. As a fifth-year senior, Dodd had no leverage to negotiate.
He made seven starts in 2023 and went 2-2 with a 7.60 ERA. He has not started a major league game since.
Out of the bullpen he has been a different pitcher. This season he threw 49 2/3 innings in 48 appearances with a 2.54 ERA, 53 strikeouts, two saves and a 0.91 WHIP. Opponents hit .176 against him. His sinker now sits at 93.9 mph and he throws it 60 percent of the time, with a cutter at 35 percent.
Against left-handed hitters he goes to the sinker two-thirds of the time, which matters with Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman hitting second and fourth.
He faced three batters in Game 3 against Philadelphia and allowed a run.
Grant Holmes follows
Holmes is expected to provide the bulk innings. He threw 28 pitches over two innings in Game 3 and is lined up for a similar workload.
He went 10-6 with a 3.44 ERA in 29 starts this season, his best of three years in Atlanta. The Braves were 20-9 in his starts.
Holmes is from Conway, South Carolina, and was drafted in the first round by the Dodgers in 2014. He has not cut his hair since 2017.
Brent Suter and Ray Kerr are also available. Kerr opened Game 3 and held Philadelphia to one hit over 3 1/3 innings. Suter, the 37-year-old Harvard graduate acquired from the Angels before the deadline, has a 1.63 ERA in 13 appearances, with left-handed hitters batting .189 against him.
Los Angeles is lined up
Skubal starts Game 1, Blake Snell Game 2, and Yoshinobu Yamamoto is likely for Game 3. Tyler Glasnow is also available.
Skubal went 12-7 with a 2.72 ERA and has never started a home playoff game.
The Dodgers earned a bye as the No. 2 seed and have been off since the end of the regular season.
Shohei Ohtani hit .275 with 30 home runs and an .889 OPS while managing knee and biceps issues. Mookie Betts leads off at shortstop and homered against San Francisco on Sept. 26. Kyle Tucker hit .233 with 17 homers.
Seven Los Angeles pitchers are on the 60-day injured list, including Blake Treinen, Brusdar Graterol and Gavin Stone.
The World Baseball Classic connections
Los Angeles sent five active players to the tournament in March. Ohtani and Yamamoto played for Japan, Hyeseong Kim for Korea, Will Smith for the United States and Edwin Diaz for Puerto Rico. Clayton Kershaw was on the Team USA staff.
Kim hit a two-run home run against Ohtani's Japan team at the Tokyo Dome. Venezuela beat the United States 3-2 in the final.
Atlanta sent Ronald Acuna Jr. to Venezuela, Ozzie Albies and Chadwick Tromp to the Netherlands, Mauricio Dubon and Nacho Alvarez Jr. to Mexico, Javy Guerra to Panama and Dane Dunning to South Korea. Hall of Famer Andruw Jones managed the Netherlands.
Ha-Seong Kim starts at shortstop for Atlanta. Hyeseong Kim is on the Dodgers roster.
Freddie Freeman faces Atlanta again
Freeman spent twelve seasons with the Braves and won a World Series there in 2021 before signing with Los Angeles. He bats fourth.
How Atlanta got here
The Braves beat Philadelphia 6-2 in Game 3 on Thursday after splitting the first two.
Michael Harris II hit a three-run home run in the first inning, Ozzie Albies added a two-run shot in the fourth and Matt Olson homered in the seventh.
Outside of Albies and Harris, Atlanta hit 14-for-75 in the Wild Card Series.
Olson hit 41 home runs with 93 RBIs during the regular season. Harris hit .294 with 26 homers.
The series schedule
Game 1 — Saturday, Oct. 3, 4 p.m. ET, Los Angeles, FOX
Game 2 — Sunday, Oct. 4, 8 p.m. ET, Los Angeles, FS1
Game 3 — Tuesday, Oct. 6, 6 p.m. ET, Atlanta, FS1
Game 4 — Wednesday, Oct. 7, 6 p.m. ET, Atlanta, FS1, if necessary
Game 5 — Friday, Oct. 9, 8 p.m. ET, Los Angeles, FOX, if necessary
The winner plays in the National League Championship Series beginning Oct. 11 on FOX and FS1.
The rest of Saturday
White Sox at Guardians, 1 p.m. ET on TBS and truTV. Hagen Smith against Parker Messick.
Yankees at Rays, 6:30 p.m. ET on TBS, truTV, UniMas and HBO Max. Gerrit Cole against Drew Rasmussen. Aaron Judge is not on the roster with a strained right calf.
Padres at Brewers, 8:30 p.m. ET on FS1. Jacob Misiorowski starts for Milwaukee. Walker Buehler is on the paternity list and Randy Vasquez replaces him on the San Diego roster.