Biggest Winners and Losers From Dodgers NLDS Win Over Braves

The Los Angeles Dodgers are eight wins away from capturing their third consecutive World Series title after beating the Atlanta Braves in the National League Division Series.

The Dodgers are back in the NL Championship Series, where they're facing the Milwaukee Brewers in a rematch of last year's NLCS.

The Dodgers were the better team over the Braves from top to bottom, showing and proving to be a more explosive offense with lights-out pitching in the starting rotation and out of the bullpen.

Here are the biggest winners and losers for LA.

Winners

Tarik Skubal and Yoshinobu Yamamoto

The starters for Games 1 and 3, Skubal and Yamamoto delivered and proved to be the clear aces for the Dodgers.

In Skubal's first postseason start as a Dodger, the left-handed pitcher gave Los Angeles six innings while allowing one run on two hits with seven strikeouts in Game 1. He immediately justified the Dodgers' decision to line him up as their Game 1 starter after the first-round bye.

The addition of Skubal wasn't just for the regular season and to possibly secure him past the 2026 season, but for moments like these. And now, heading into the NLCS and longer series, Skubal will be huge for Los Angeles moving forward.

The same goes for Yamamoto, as the 28-year-old delivered like only he does in October.

Yamamoto was stellar on Tuesday, outdueling Chris Sale (even if he humbly didn't think he did). The Japanese sensation threw seven innings of one-run ball with 10 strikeouts and only one walk. The 10 strikeouts were a postseason career-high.

When the stakes are highest, Yamamoto seems to shine the brightest. He's now proven that to be the case for three postseasons in a row.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto's last 5 postseason outings:

7 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 10 K in NLDS Game 3
2.2 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 1 K in World Series Game 7
6 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 6 K in WS Game 6
9 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 8 K in WS Game 2
9 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 7 K in NLCS Game 2

He got the win in all five of these games. pic.twitter.com/wS5bordc64
— Noah Camras (@noahcamras) October 7, 2026

Andy Pages

It's been a struggle for Pages in his postseason career. However, Pages wasn't fazed, coming up clutch for the Dodgers and giving the team the lead in the seventh inning of Game 4 with a two-out, two-run single.

The Dodgers were 0-for-15 with runners in scoring position before Pages came through in the clutch.

In four games this series, Pages hit .286 with a .905 OPS across 14 at-bats. That's plenty to build off of moving forward.

Dave Roberts didn't want to bench Andy Pages after Game 2 amid his playoff struggles:

"I believe in him. I feel that for us to win the World Series this year, we're gonna need him to be an active part of our team."

Safe to say Roberts' decision worked. pic.twitter.com/5eZfBAmVPh
— Noah Camras (@noahcamras) October 8, 2026

Edwin Diaz

The Dodgers' $69 million man looked like a different pitcher from the regular season into October.

He made his Dodgers postseason debut in Game 2, entering in the sixth and striking out two in a perfect inning while touching 100.8 mph. Then he got the ninth inning in Game 3 and recorded his first postseason save as a Dodger. On Wednesday night, he earned his second save to close out the series.

Diaz's regular season was a disaster. He spent time on the injured list, struggled when he returned and had an 8.68 ERA over 18.2 regular-season innings. As recently as September, there were questions about whether he'd even make the postseason bullpen.

Now?

He's throwing 100 mph in October, and Dave Roberts is trusting him in the highest-leverage situations.

Diaz will likely be the Dodgers' closer the rest of the way.

Losers

Shohei Ohtani

Ohtani has been a shell of himself for the last few months, and unfortunately that's followed him into October.

In Game 3, Roberts dropped Ohtani to the No. 5 spot in the lineup. He was moved up to fourth in Game 4.

In 13 at-bats, Ohtani finished the NLDS hitting .154 with a .688 OPS. He had two hits and four strikeouts.

Ohtani's last home run came on Aug. 18.

Blake Snell

Snell was far from sharp in his lone postseason appearance thus far.

The problem wasn't necessarily the one run allowed. It was everything it took to get there.

Snell threw 90 pitches in just 3.2 innings and walked five batters. He loaded the bases with two outs in the first inning after two walks, then continued to drive up his pitch count throughout his outing.

He simply couldn't give the Dodgers length. The Dodgers had a major pitching advantage on paper and couldn't capitalize on it in Game 2 in their lone loss of the series.

Snell will be crucial to the Dodgers in the longer NLCS. Thus, it's imperative he dials in his command.

Add us as a preferred source on Google