Dodgers And Reds To Play In 3v6 Wild Card Matchup, Winners Plays Phillies In NLDS

The Philadelphia Phillies’ possible opponents for the NLDS have been set.

This past week, the Phillies locked up a first-round bye in the National League playoffs, and after losing a game to the Minnesota Twins, they officially clinched the No. 2 overall seed. Clinching the two seed gives them a bye in the first round, sending them straight to the NLDS.

With the way the playoff bracket works, the Phillies will play the winner of the wild card matchup between the No. 3 and No. 6 in a five-game series. The wild card matchup will be a three-game series with all three games taking place at the No. 3 seed ballpark.

The No. 3 seed is the division winner with the worst record; this year, that team is the Los Angeles Dodgers. The No. 6 seed came down to the final day of the regular season, with the Cincinnati Reds and New York Mets tying for the final spot in the postseason. Both teams entered the final game of the season with an 83-78 record, and the Reds held the tiebreaker after winning the season series.

Both teams ended the year losing their final game, and because of that, the Reds secured the sixth and final seed in the playoffs. It’s the first time the Reds have made the playoffs since 2020, when they earned a wild card spot and lost to the Atlanta Braves.

The Mets at one point held the best record in all of baseball, opening the season at 45-24, but collapsed in the second half of the year, finishing 38-55 in their final 93 games of the season. For the Reds, they battled all season long, constantly staying around the .500 mark, before ending the season winning nine of their final 13 games to secure the final playoff spot.

Game 1 of the wild card series kicks off on Tuesday, September 30, at 9:08 p.m. ET at Dodger Stadium. All games will start at 9:08 p.m. ET. Hunter Greene is expected to be on the bump for the Reds and for the Dodgers. Blake Snell is a good bet to start, according to Dodgers manager Dave Roberts.

For game two, Yoshinobu Yamamoto will likely get the start for Los Angeles, and Nick Lodolo will do the same for Cincinnati. If that series goes to a third game, expected National League MVP Shohei Ohtani would be in line to start for the Dodgers. If they don’t go three games, he would likely start Game 1 of the NLDS vs the Phillies, if the Dodgers make it that far.

The Dodgers are the defending champs, securing the World Series win over the New York Yankees last season. They started the year hot, opening at a 52-31 record before struggling over the summer and falling all the way down to just four games over .500. They eventually hit their stride down the stretch but were unable to pass the Phillies for a first-round bye.

The last time the Phillies played the Dodgers in the postseason was in the 2009 NLCS, when the Phillies defeated Los Angeles in five games to go back to the World Series. Jimmy Rollins famously hit a walkoff two-run double in Game 4 to take a 3-1 series lead, before the Phillies closed things out with a 10-4 win in Game 5.

For the Reds, the Phillies played them back in the 2010 NLDS, where they swept Cincinnati in three games. In that series, Roy Halladay tossed at the time the second postseason no-hitter in Game 1 of the series.

The first game of the NLDS will kick off on Saturday, October 4, in Philadelphia at Citizens Bank Park. Cristopher Sanchez is expected to be the Game 1 starter, followed by Ranger Suarez and Jesus Luzardo. Game 2 will be the following Monday. Times for the games have yet to be announced.

Get new articles emailed right to your inbox.