2019 National League Division Series
The 2019 National League Division Series were two best-of-five series on the National League side in Major League Baseball’s 2019 postseason to determine the participating teams of the 2019 National League Championship Series. The three divisional winners, seeded first through third, and a fourth team—determined by the NL Wild Card Game—played in two series. These matchups were:
- Los Angeles Dodgers vs. Washington Nationals : Nationals win series 3–2.
- Atlanta Braves vs. St. Louis Cardinals : Cardinals win series 3–2.
The Nationals would go on to defeat the Cardinals in the NLCS, for their first League pennant. They then won the 2019 World Series over the American League champion Houston Astros, for their first-ever World title.
For the third straight year, Major League Baseball sold presenting sponsorships to all of its postseason series. This NLDS was sponsored by Utz and officially known as the 2019 National League Division Series presented by Utz Snacks. The Cardinals and Nationals won their respective series to advance to the Championship Series.
This was the first time that both NLDS winners overcame a 2–1 series deficit in the same year.
Background
Seeds 1–3 were determined by regular season winning percentages among division-winning teams. Those seeds were locked in on the last day of the season, September 29. The final seed was the winner of the National League Wild Card Game.The Los Angeles Dodgers became the first team to clinch a playoff berth by clinching the National League West title on September 10, and secured the best record in NL via their league-leading winning percentage on September 24. They played the Washington Nationals, who defeated the Milwaukee Brewers on October 1 in the Wild Card Game. Los Angeles won the regular season series 4–3 against Washington.
The Atlanta Braves clinched a playoff berth on September 14, the National League East on September 20, and the second-seed in the NLDS via their winning percentage. They played the 3-seed St. Louis Cardinals, who clinched the National League Central on September 29, the final day of the regular season. The Braves won the regular season series 4–2 against the Cardinals.
This was the league-leading 15th NLDS appearance for Atlanta, and 14th for both Los Angeles and St. Louis. This was the Nationals' fifth division series appearance in team history, and the sixth in franchise history.
Matchups
Los Angeles Dodgers vs. Washington Nationals
Atlanta Braves vs. St. Louis Cardinals
Los Angeles vs. Washington
This was the third postseason meeting between the Dodgers and the Nationals franchise. The most recent meeting was in the 2016 National League Division Series, with Los Angeles winning in five. The other took place in the 1981 National League Championship Series, in which the Dodgers won the National League pennant over the then-Montreal Expos in five games.Game 1
started game 1 for the Dodgers and Patrick Corbin for the Nationals. In the bottom of the first, Corbin walked four batters, including a bases loaded walk to Max Muncy to give the Dodgers the early lead. The Dodgers got another run in the fifth inning when Cody Bellinger scored on a fielding error by Howie Kendrick. Buehler allowed only one hit in six scoreless innings, while striking out eight and walking three. Corbin allowed only one earned run on three hits and five walks while striking out nine in six innings. Muncy drove in two more runs with a bases loaded single off Fernando Rodney in the seventh and Gavin Lux hit a pinch-hit homer off Hunter Strickland in the eighth. Joc Pederson also homered off Strickland to extend the lead, as the Dodgers held the Nationals to two hits in the 6–0 win. At 21 years and 314 days, Gavin Lux was the youngest player all-time to hit a pinch-hit home run in the playoffs. He was also the youngest Dodger to hit a home run in a playoff game, with that previous record belonging to Cody Bellinger, who homered at the age of 22 years and 88 days during the 2017 NLDS against the Arizona Diamondbacks.Game 2
The starting pitchers for game 2 were Clayton Kershaw for the Dodgers and Stephen Strasburg for the Nationals. The Nationals got on the board first when Howie Kendrick drove in Trea Turner with a single in the first. They got two more in the second on RBI hits by Adam Eaton and Anthony Rendon. Kershaw pitched six innings, allowing the three runs on six hits, two hit batters, and one walk with four strikeouts. The Dodgers finally scored on a sacrifice fly by Justin Turner in the sixth inning. Strasburg struck out 10 in six innings while only allowing one run on three hits. Max Muncy homered off Sean Doolittle in the seventh to cut the lead to one. The Nationals got the run back the next inning, when pinch-hitter Asdrúbal Cabrera singled to right off Dustin May to drive in a run from third. The Dodgers loaded the bases off Daniel Hudson in the ninth but failed to score and the Nationals evened up the series at one all with the 4–2 win. Hudson earned his second save this postseason.Game 3
Game 3 featured a matchup between Aníbal Sánchez of the Nationals and Hyun-jin Ryu of the Dodgers. Juan Soto hit a two-run homer off Ryu in the first inning to give the Nationals the early lead. Muncy homered in the fifth off Sánchez to cut the lead in half. Sánchez pitched five innings, allowing the one run on four hits and two walks, with a season high nine strikeouts. Ryu allowed the two runs on four hits and two walks with three strikeouts. The Nationals used game 1 starter Patrick Corbin in relief in the sixth and Russell Martin drove in two runs with a double to give the Dodgers their first lead of the game. Kiké Hernández drove in two more later that inning with a pinch-hit double and Justin Turner followed that with a three-run home run off of Wander Suero. Joe Kelly loaded the bases the next inning and then threw a wild pitch that scored Anthony Rendon. A sacrifice fly by Asdrúbal Cabrera gave the Nationals another run. Martin hit a two-run homer off Hunter Strickland in the ninth to give the Dodgers ten runs in the game. They went on to win the game 10–4.Game 4
started for the Nationals in Game 4 opposite Rich Hill for the Dodgers. Justin Turner hit a solo homer off Scherzer in the first inning to start the scoring. In the third inning, Hill loaded the bases on two walks and a single before Anthony Rendon hit a sacrifice fly to tie the score. He walked another batter to load the bases again but Kenta Maeda replaced Hill and got a groundout to end the inning. Hill wound up pitching 2 innings, with one run allowed on two hits and four walks. Trea Turner led off the fifth inning with a single off Julio Urías, advanced on a bunt and then scored the go-ahead run on a single by Rendon. Ryan Zimmerman hit a three-run home run off Pedro Báez later that inning. Rendon drove in another run with a sacrifice fly in the sixth off of Ross Stripling. Scherzer escaped a bases loaded jam in the seventh to pitch seven innings on 109 pitches, allowing only the one run on four hits and three walks with seven strikeouts. The Nationals secured a 6–1 victory, evening up the series and sending it to a winner-take-all fifth game.Game 5
Los Angeles and Washington previously met in one NLDS Game 5, with the Dodgers winning in 2016. Los Angeles was 2–1 in prior NLDS Game 5 appearances, while Washington was 1–3. This game featured a matchup of Game 1 winner Walker Buehler and Game 2 winner Stephen Strasburg. The Dodgers jumped on Strasburg in the bottom of the first with a double by Joc Pederson followed by a two-run home run from Max Muncy, his third of the series. Kiké Hernández hit a homer in the second to extend the lead to three. The Nationals got on the scoreboard in the sixth inning when Juan Soto singled to score Anthony Rendon. Strasburg pitched six innings, with three runs on six hits and one walk and seven strikeouts while Buehler pitched 6 innings, allowing one run on four hits, three walks and a hit batsman while striking out seven. Back-to-back home runs in the eighth by Rendon and Juan Soto off Clayton Kershaw tied the game. With a scoreless ninth inning, the game went to extra innings, the first NLDS Game 5 to do so since 2011. Howie Kendrick hit a grand slam off of Joe Kelly in the top of the tenth inning to give the Nationals a 7–3 lead. Sean Doolittle set down the Dodgers in order in the bottom of the tenth, getting Justin Turner to fly out to Michael A. Taylor for the third out; the Dodgers called for a video review, but the call was upheld and it ended the series. The Nationals advanced to the NLCS, while the Dodgers' two-year reign as NL champions was over and their 31st straight year without a title. This was the third straight year and fourth time in the last five years the Dodgers were eliminated from the postseason at home, and was also the first time the Dodgers were eliminated from the NLDS since 2015. As a result of the NLDS Game 5 loss, the Dodgers became the first team to win 105+ games in a season to not advance to the LCS since the Division Series was introduced. This was also just the third LDS winner-take-all Game 5 to go into extra innings. For the Washington Nationals, after several NLDS exits, they advanced to the NLCS for the first time since 1981 when they were based in Montreal as the Expos.Charley Steiner, fan of the Dodgers since the Brooklyn days and long time radio play-by-play announcer, said after the final out that this was one of the Dodgers’ most devastating losses in their 129-year history.