2026 NLDS Preview: Can the Braves topple the Dodgers once more?

The Braves will have to refocus on the red-eye flight this morning and prepare for a much different encounter tomorrow. The Dodgers will be rested and preparing to kick off their run toward a third World Series title. This is not a team like the Phillies, who needed to scratch and claw to advance and brought a jumbled and rest-deprived starting rotation. Let's have a look at that Dodgers rotation and what will greet the Braves.

The Dodgers healthy starting pitching options look like this: Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow, Tarik Skubal, Blake Snell, Justin Wrobleski, and Emmet Sheehan. Is that all they have and no Shohei Ohtani, huh Dodgers? They aren't the Evil Empire 2.0 for nothing, folks. The best option to start Game 1 will be Yoshinobu Yamamoto. After him the Dodgers can run three left-hand starting pitchers at Drake Baldwin, Matt Olson and Michael Harris II. Let's walk through Yamamoto first.

Those are some menacing red bars there. The other menacing part is the arsenal, which includes a 96 MPH fastball, split-finger, cutter, curveball, sinker, and slider. The four-season fastball usage has gone down season, and so have the strikeouts. But he has back-to-back 4.6+ WAR seasons, so it's a pick-your-poison type of encounter.