October is a time for baseball’s biggest stars to shine the brightest. In Tuesday’s NLDS Game 3 between the Braves and Dodgers in Atlanta, we’ll be spoiled with what is arguably the best pitching matchup thus far in the 2026 postseason.
Reigning World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto will toe the rubber for the Dodgers in his first appearance of this postseason. Across from Yamamoto, Braves lefty Chris Sale will take the ball on regular rest after pitching twice in the Wild Card Series against the Phillies -- 6 1/3 innings in Game 1 and the final four outs to close the decisive Game 3. Sale had been a candidate to pitch Game 2 on short rest.
Instead, these aces will try to will their teams to an all-important victory in Game 3 of the only Division Series thus far to see both teams win a game. Tuesday’s matchup is scheduled for a 6 p.m. ET first pitch at Truist Park.
“That's the thing, there should be a lot of talk about Chris Sale, but our guy has been pretty dang good and has been a very good pitcher in the postseason,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Monday.
“It's going to be a good fight,” Roberts added. “I think both pitchers are going to pitch well. And it's kind of who grinds out at-bats best.”
These two have risen to the occasion in Octobers past.
Yamamoto’s 2025 performance was the stuff of legend, especially as he finished Game 7 of the World Series just one day after pitching six innings in a Game 6 start.
Sale, while his career 5.83 ERA in the postseason won’t dazzle, has also turned in a memorable moment. He secured the final three outs -- against the Dodgers -- of the deciding Game 5 of the 2018 World Series for the Red Sox after starting Game 1.
That makes Tuesday’s game just the third postseason matchup between starting pitchers who had previously closed out a World Series-clinching game, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. The first came in 1911, between the New York Giants’ Christy Mathewson and the Philadelphia Athletics’ Jack Coombs. The second was in 1938, between the Cubs’ Dizzy Dean and the Yankees’ Lefty Gomez.
“I think it just reiterates the all-hands-on-deck mentality. [Boston is] really where I learned it,” Sale said. “I've never been in the postseason before I got to Boston. When you get there and you're around winners and that mentality and that kind of culture, you see what winning at all costs looks like.”
Since Yamamoto came to MLB and Sale joined the Braves in 2024, the duo has faced off just once: Aug. 27 of this season -- a vintage pitchers’ duel. Yamamoto spun 6 1/3 innings of one-run ball. But Sale went the distance, striking out 11 in his first shutout since 2019.
That was just more of the same for these two, who will likely both receive NL Cy Young votes for stellar 2026 campaigns. But that all goes out the window ahead of Tuesday’s game.
“I have too much respect for the game of baseball; I've got too much respect for those guys on the other side of the field to think, because of a previous experience, that the next one was going to be anything other than a grind,” Sale said. “This is playoff baseball. That's a helluva team across the way.
“I'm just preparing for another grind. I'm preparing for another battle and just got to go leave it all on the field. However it shakes out, that's how it shakes out.”