2021 National League Division Series
Teams
Team (Wins) Manager Season Los Angeles Dodgers (3) Dave Roberts 106–56 (.654), GB: 1 San Francisco Giants (2) Gabe Kapler 107–55 (.660), GA: 1
Dates	October 8–14
Television	TBS
TV announcers	Brian Anderson,Ron Darling, andLauren Shehadi
Radio	ESPN
Radio announcers	Jon Sciambi andKyle Peterson
Umpires	Ted Barrett (crew chief),Doug Eddings,Angel Hernandez,Pat Hoberg,Gabe Morales,Carlos Torres
Teams
Team (Wins) Manager Season Atlanta Braves (3) Brian Snitker 88–73 (.547), GA: 61⁄2 Milwaukee Brewers (1) Craig Counsell 95–67 (.586), GA: 5
Dates	October 8–12
Television	TBS
TV announcers	Don Orsillo,Jeff Francoeur, andMatt Winer
Radio	ESPN
Radio announcers	Karl Ravech andTim Kurkjian
Umpires	Mike Estabrook,Will Little,Alfonso Márquez (crew chief),Mike Muchlinski,Tony Randazzo,Quinn Wolcott
NLWC	Los Angeles Dodgers defeatedSt. Louis Cardinals, 3–1
← 2020 NLDS 2022 →

The2021 National League Division Series were two best-of-five-games series on theNational League side in Major League Baseball’s2021 postseason to determine the participating teams of the2021 National League Championship Series. The three divisional winners, seeded first through third, and a fourth team — determined by theNL Wild Card Game — played in two series. These matchups were:

• (1)San Francisco Giants (NL West champions) vs. (4)Los Angeles Dodgers (Wild Card Game winner): Dodgers win series 3–2.
• (2)Milwaukee Brewers (NL Central champions) vs. (3)Atlanta Braves (NL East champions): Braves win series 3–1.

The team with the better regular season record (higher seed) of each series hosted Games 1, 2, and (if necessary) 5, while the lower seeded team hosted Game 3 and 4.^[1][2]

The Braves would go on to defeat the Dodgers in six games in the2021 National League Championship Series, and would then defeat theAmerican League championHouston Astros in six games in the2021 World Series.

Seeds 1–3 were determined by regular seasonwinning percentages among division-winning teams. The final team was the winner of theNational League Wild Card Game, played between the league's fourth and fifth-seeded teams.

TheMilwaukee Brewers clinched theNational League Central and the 2 seed in the NL on September 26 via their 95–67 record.^[3] TheAtlanta Braves clinched theNational League East and the 3 seed in the NL on September 30 via their 88–73 record.^[4][5] The Brewers and Braves were tied in their season series, with both winning three games each.

TheSan Francisco Giants clinched theNational League West and home-field advantage throughout the entire playoffs with a 107–55 record on October 3, the last day of the regular season.^[6][7] TheLos Angeles Dodgers defeated theSt. Louis Cardinals in theWild Card Game, 3–1, to advance to the NLDS.^[8] The postseason match-up between thetwo rivals was the first in their history and was a continuation of their battle over the NL West crown during the regular season. San Francisco won the season series over Los Angeles, 10–9.

The Giants made their first postseason appearance since2016. This was the Braves' fourth straight postseason appearance, having won the NL East each of those seasons. The Brewers made their fourth straight postseason appearance, extending a franchise record. Also extending a franchise streak of postseason appearances were the Dodgers, who made their ninth straight appearance.

Los Angeles won the series, 3–2.

Atlanta won the series, 3–1.

This was the first postseason match-up in the history of theDodgers-Giants rivalry and a continuation of the tight divisional race between the two rivals, which saw the Giants win a franchise-record 107 games and the Dodgers tie theirs at 106 wins. The Dodgers and Giants divisional race became only the fourth time a pair of 100 win teams in the same division were separated by one game, the others being:1915 Red Sox/Tigers;1962 Giants/Dodgers; and1993 Braves/Giants.^[9] The Giants won the season series, 10–9.^[10]

There had been no prior postseason match-ups between the two rivals in the modern era, but they had previously met with high stakes on the line. When the teams were located in New York, they met in the1951 National League tie-breaker series, due to both teams finishing with identicalwin–loss records of 96–58. It is most famous for thewalk-off home run hit byBobby Thomson of the Giants in the deciding game, which has come to be known as baseball's "Shot Heard 'Round the World". In California, and with identical 101–61 records after 162 games, the teams met with a pennant on the line in the1962 National League tie-breaker series. The Giants closed out the series in Game 3 with a 6–4 victory to clinch their first pennant in San Francisco.

There were various connections between the two clubs, mainly due to the presence of the Giants' president of baseball operations,Farhan Zaidi. Zaidi was the Dodgers' general manager from 2014 to 2018. Giants managerGabe Kapler was the Dodgers' director of player development from 2014 to 2017, where he had a hand in helping develop many of the Dodgers' homegrown players.^[11]

Additionally, managersGabe Kapler andDave Roberts were both members of the famedcurse-breaking2004 Red Sox (Roberts had been the pinch-runner who tied Game 4 of the ALCS, running forKevin Millar who had walked).

The Dodgers and Giants 213 combined regular season wins were the most in MLB postseason series history, beating out the1998 World Series between the114–48 Yankees and98–64 Padres (212 combined victories).^[12]

Walker Buehler started for the Dodgers but the Giants pounced on him in the first inning, with a two-run homer byBuster Posey. Buehler recovered after that and kept the Giants from scoring again until allowing a solo homer byKris Bryant in the seventh. Overall he allowed the three runs in6+1⁄3 innings on six hits and one walk, while striking out five. The Giants added one more run on a homer byBrandon Crawford offAlex Vesia in the eighth. Meanwhile,Logan Webb pitched for the Giants and completely dominated the Dodgers, allowing five hits in7+2⁄3 scoreless innings while striking out 10. The Giants took game one, 4–0.^[13]

Julio Urías started the second game for the Dodgers and only allowed one run on three hits in five innings, with five strikeouts.Kevin Gausman for the Giants allowed four runs in5+1⁄3 innings. The Dodgers scored the first two runs in the second on RBI singles by Urías andMookie Betts with the Giants getting one back in the bottom of the inning on a sacrifice fly byDonovan Solano. The Dodgers then scored four runs in the sixth on back-to-back doubles byCody Bellinger andA. J. Pollock and they added three more in the eighth on aWill Smith homer and RBI singles byMatt Beaty andCorey Seager off of relieversZack Littell andJarlin García. The Giants scored on a Crawford single offJoe Kelly in the sixth but lost the game 9–2 to even up the series.^[14]

Max Scherzer allowed only three hits and one walk in seven innings while striking out 10. However, one of the hits he allowed was a solo home run byEvan Longoria in the fifth inning.Alex Wood and three relievers combined to hold the Dodgers scoreless for the second time in the series and the Giants took back the lead with a 1–0 victory.^[15]

In Game 4, the Dodgers jumped out to an early lead on a first inning RBI double byTrea Turner and a second inning sacrifice fly byChris Taylor, driving Giants starterAnthony DeSclafani out of the game after just1+2⁄3 innings, having allowed the two runs on five hits. A two-run homer byMookie Betts in the fourth inning off ofJarlin García extended the lead.Walker Buehler, starting on short rest for the first time in his career, pitched4+1⁄3 innings for the Dodgers, walking two and giving up only three hits. He left the game with two runners on, one of whom (Evan Longoria), scored on aDarin Ruf ground out againstJoe Kelly. The Dodgers got the run back on a Betts sacrifice fly off ofTyler Rogers.Kris Bryant drove in the Giants second run on a ground out againstBlake Treinen in the eighth but the Dodgers put the game out of reach thanks to aWill Smith two-run homer in the bottom of the eighth againstJake McGee. They won 7–2 to tie the series up once more.^[16]

The most recent prior Game 5 in a Division Series for the Dodgers was2019, which they lost to theWashington Nationals, and for the Giants was2012, which they won over theCincinnati Reds.Logan Webb started for the Giants and went seven innings, while the Dodgers'Corey Knebel acted as anopener, only pitching the first inning. The Dodgers scored first, asMookie Betts reached on a single in the sixth and was driven in on a double byCorey Seager. A home run by the Giants'Darin Ruf off ofJulio Urías in the bottom of the inning tied the score. The Dodgers scored a run in the top off the ninth off of GiantscloserCamilo Doval, via ahit by pitch and singles byGavin Lux andCody Bellinger. The Dodgers then sent inMax Scherzer to pitch the bottom of the ninth afterKenley Jansen pitched a scoreless eighth inning. With one out,Kris Bryant reached on anerror byJustin Turner. Scherzer then recorded two strikeouts to end the threat. The final out was on a controversialchecked swing third strike, as first base umpireGabe Morales ruled thatWilmer Flores had offered on a two-strike pitch outside the strike zone.^[17] With their 110th win of the season (regular season and postseason), the Dodgers finally overtook the Giants and advanced to face theAtlanta Braves in theNLCS.^[18]

As a result of their NLDS Game 5 loss, the Giants became the second of three teams to win 105+ games in a season to not advance to the LCS since the Division Series was introduced in 1995. The two other teams that lost under the same circumstances were the 106-win2019 Dodgers, and afterwards, the 111-win2022 Dodgers.

The Dodgers were only the third team in postseason history to allow no more than one run in two winner-take-all victories in the same year. The2017 Astros did it in theALCS and theWorld Series, while the1981 Dodgers did it in both theNLDS andNLCS. The 2021 Dodgers also join the2020 Rays,2001 Diamondbacks and1972 Athletics as teams to eke out multiple winner-take-all victories by a margin of no more than two runs in a single postseason.^[19]

Game 5 was the last ofBuster Posey's career, who retired at the season's end.^[20] Overall, 2021 would be seen as an outlier year for San Francisco. They could not replicate their magic in the2022,2023, or2024 seasons. After the 2024 season, Buster Posey was hired to become the president of baseball operations for the Giants, replacingFarhan Zaidi.

This was the middle of three postseason match-ups of a Los Angeles-based sports team versus a Bay Area-based sports within nine months of each other. Earlier in the year, theLos Angeles Lakers defeated theGolden State Warriors in the NBA’sPlay-In Game. The third meeting between both cities came in theNFL, with theLos Angeles Rams defeating theSan Francisco 49ers 20–17 in the2021 NFC Championship Game.

2021 NLDS(3–2):Los Angeles Dodgers beatSan Francisco Giants

This was the first postseason matchup between the Braves and the Brewers. The two teams each won three games in the six-game regular season series.^[10]

Historically, the Braves franchise was based in Milwaukee from 1953 to 1965, and both the Braves and Brewers retired the jersey ofHank Aaron, who started and ended his MLB career in the city of Milwaukee. While in the city, the Braves won the1957 World Series, which was the franchise's second championship and last for 38 years. To date, it is the only World Series championship the city of Milwaukee has won.

Game 1 of the series featured a pitcher's duel betweenCharlie Morton andCorbin Burnes. The game was scoreless until the bottom of the seventh, whenRowdy Tellez hit a two-run home run off of Morton to give Milwaukee the lead. In the eighth,Joc Pederson hit a pinch-hit solo home run to put the Braves on the board. The Braves made things interesting in the ninth against All-Star closerJosh Hader, but he closed the door after getting former BrewerOrlando Arcia to groundout toKolten Wong. With the loss, the Braves fell to 4–12 in Game 1 of playoff series since 2000, with three of those wins coming in2020.^[21]

Game 2 featured a pitching match-up ofBrandon Woodruff andMax Fried.Freddie Freeman andOzzie Albies got the Braves on the board in the third inning with an RBI single and double (Albies double was originally ruled as a home run, but was changed on further review).Austin Riley extended the lead greeting Woodruff with a home run in his final inning of work. The Brewers put together a rally in the seventh inning, but Tyler Matzek stopped the threat by striking outTyrone Taylor. The Brewers also had a bases loaded situation in the 9th, but closerWill Smith induced a game ending double-play off the bat ofLuke Maile to tie the series at 1.

Game 3 featured more of the same for the Brewers' offense, as they would be shut out in back-to-back games. In an attempt to try to get the offense going, Brewers starting pitcherFreddy Peralta was pulled after throwing four scoreless innings, as his spot was due up in the top of the fifth with runners on base. It did not work out as the Brewers threat was stopped andJoc Pederson belted a three-run home run in the fifth inning after Peralta was removed.Ian Anderson's five innings of scoreless ball was backed by stellar Braves' defense, as they moved one win from advancing back to the NL Championship Series.

Milwaukee scored their first runs since the seventh inning of game 1 withOmar Narváez andLorenzo Cain RBI line drive singles in the top of the fourth inning. The Braves answered whenEddie Rosario singled home two runs himself in the bottom of the fourth. In the fifth inningRowdy Tellez's two-run homer would also be answered by aJoc Pederson RBI groundout and aTravis d'Arnaud RBI single to tie the game again. The game remained tied until the bottom of the eighth inning whenFreddie Freeman sent aJosh Hader slider into the left-center field bleachers to give the Braves a one-run lead.Will Smith struck outChristian Yelich in the ninth to send Atlanta to their second straight NL Championship Series.

2021 NLDS(3–1):Atlanta Braves beatMilwaukee Brewers

• 2021 American League Division Series

• Major League Baseball postseason schedule

• 2021 Major League Baseball season
• National League Division Series
• October 2021 sports events in the United States
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