NLDS Game 3 Preview: Sale vs. Yamamoto in Atlanta, Brewers One Win From the NLCS

ATLANTA — Tuesday's NLDS Game 3s could barely be more different. In Atlanta, the Braves send a fully rested Chris Sale out against Yoshinobu Yamamoto with the Dodgers' three-peat dreams suddenly on life support. In San Diego, the Brewers — one win from the NLCS — can finish the Padres off and start resting. This is Previously's full Game 3 preview: where each series stands, and what to watch when they resume.

Dodgers at Braves — Game 3, Tuesday, 6 p.m. ET, FS1

The Braves evened the series Sunday with a 3-2 Game 2 win at Dodger Stadium, and they did it the hard way — a bullpen game against two-time Cy Young winner Blake Snell. Michael Harris II was the star, going 3-for-5 with a triple and an RBI double, falling a home run short of the cycle, while the Dodgers went 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position. Now Atlanta gets to come home with its ace lined up and its bullpen mostly rested.

The headline act Tuesday is the pitching matchup the Braves have been setting up all week: Chris Sale vs. Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Sale is on full rest — deliberately so. He threw 24 pitches in relief on Thursday, closing out Game 3 of Atlanta's wild-card series win over Philadelphia, and the Braves gave serious thought to bringing him back on short rest for Game 2 in Los Angeles. Manager Walt Weiss chose patience instead.

“At the end of the day, we want full-strength Chris Sale,” Weiss said, explaining the decision. “I know him at 80% is really good, but that's what it came down to.”

Weiss went further in defending the call to burn his ace in relief on Thursday rather than save him outright: “We needed to win that series, and that was our best chance to do it. So I have zero regrets about pitching Chris Sale in that last game.”

The numbers back the confidence. Sale should finish in the top three of NL Cy Young voting this season, and a fully rested version of him against a Dodgers lineup that looked lost in Game 2 is the best hand Atlanta could play. Los Angeles counters with Yamamoto — its own front-line answer — and after two games of stranding runners, the Dodgers need their ace to do what Snell could not: keep the Braves' lineup from building innings.

Consider the Dodgers' position. They won Game 1 at home. They had Game 2 there for the taking and let it slip — solo homers from Freddie Freeman and Max Muncy were the only runs they could manage against six Braves relievers. Now they fly to Atlanta, where they must win at least one of the next two just to bring the series back to Los Angeles for a decisive Game 5 on Friday. Tyler Mahle waits for Atlanta in Game 4 on Wednesday, which means the Dodgers could face Sale and Mahle in consecutive nights at Truist Park. For a team chasing a third straight World Series title, this is the first genuine danger of the entire October run.

Brewers at Padres — Game 3, Tuesday, 9:30 p.m. ET, FS1

If the Braves-Dodgers series is a chess match, the other NLDS is a countdown. Milwaukee took a 2-0 series lead Sunday with a 4-3 Game 2 win that ended on Jackson Chourio's bases-loaded walk-off single with two outs in the ninth — off Padres closer Mason Miller, who walked three batters in the inning to load the bases. It was the third postseason walk-off in Brewers franchise history.

“I just think these moments were made for me,” Chourio said afterward. He is 22 years old. The Brewers have now won both games of this series by one run at home, and the tone of the whole matchup has shifted — Milwaukee keeps finding the one swing, and San Diego keeps finding the one that falls short.

Game 3 moves to Petco Park, where the Padres get one last stand at home. The pitching matchup is set: Dustin May goes for Milwaukee against Nick Pivetta for San Diego. Pivetta's assignment is the unenviable one — face the team that just walked off your closer, knowing your season ends if you don't deliver. For the Brewers, May gets the chance to pitch them into the National League Championship Series without needing a Game 4.

The Padres' path from here is narrow but not exotic: win Tuesday, force Game 4 on Wednesday night at Petco Park (10 p.m. ET), and dare Milwaukee to beat them twice on the road. San Diego has the pitching to make that real — this is a team built around its rotation and its bullpen, which makes Miller's ninth-inning collapse on Sunday the kind of anomaly you don't expect to repeat. But the Brewers have something you can't game-plan for: they have won five straight against San Diego going back to the regular season, and every close game in that streak has broken their way.

What Tuesday decides

Two series, two completely different pressures. In Atlanta, the Dodgers are playing for control of a best-of-five — a win Tuesday flips home-field advantage back to Los Angeles and forces the Braves to win on the road. A Braves win puts the Dodgers on the brink of a first-round exit and turns Wednesday's Game 4 into a potential coronation.

In San Diego, the Brewers can finish the job and start resting for the NLCS. The Padres are simply playing for Thursday — nothing else matters until they win Tuesday.

The common thread: both visiting favorites from the weekend are now the teams under the most pressure. The Dodgers spent the regular season as the NL's standard-bearer. The Brewers spent it quietly building the best record in baseball. Tuesday is the day October starts answering which one of those actually matters.