The Los Angeles Dodgers were left for dead by many in the MLB after getting off to a horrible start, but after proving that the baseball season is a marathon and not a sprint, the team is one win against the Atlanta Braves away from winning the National League division series as Game 4 hits TBS on Monday night.
The Dodgers had to travel to Atlanta for games 1 and 2 before winning game 3 at home and now Los Angeles will toss Clayton Kershaw on Monday on short rest against veteran Freddy Garcia. Kershaw will be starting on short rest on Monday after pitching seven strong innings in game 1 and now he has his team in position to advance to the National League championship series with a win at Dodger Stadium on Monday.
Check here for the live stream coverage of the Dodgers and Atlanta Braves NLDS series or for more on the Major League Baseball playoffs.
The Atlanta Braves were one of the best teams in the National League in 2013, but after winning the NL east by a large margin and looking like one of the favorites in the postseason, they are now one loss from getting eliminated and sent home. The team had a very disappointing finish last season in the playoffs and now they are ever so close to that happening again
Justin Upton will need to play like he did earlier in the season to put the Braves over the top and after appearing with his brother BJ and model Kate Upton on the cover of Sports Illustrated, he may have put the old cover jinx on his team and now he will have to play a big game to get out of it. The Dodgers and Kershaw defeated Kris Medlen in game 1 and now they will have to figure out the crafty veteran in Garcia, who previously pitched in the postwar with the Seattle Mariners and Chicago White Sox.
Kershaw has not done this on such short rest before, but pitching on short rest doesn't seem out of the question for a 25-year-old and he will be matched up against Freddy Garcia. Kershaw already won the first game in the series and pitched very well with just one run and three hits after going seven innings and Mattingly is hoping for more of the same on Monday night. The Braves are coming into the series after totally dominating the National League East and winning by a wide margin and now they will have to fight off elimination against the Dodgers.
The Braves have had an uneven season offensively and ranked 13th in the league in runs scored and 20th in batting average and they are coming into the playoffs without Dan Uggla. The Brothers Upton of Justin Upton and BJ Upton were on the cover of SI this past week and now they are close to proving the cover jinx right, as the Braves are just one game from getting eliminated in the playoffs after they lost early last season as well.