MLB Playoff Bracket 2026, Early NLCS Odds, TV Schedule and Predictions

The Los Angeles Dodgers and Milwaukee Brewers will face each other in the National League Championship Series for the second straight year.

Each team closed out its respective Division Series on Wednesday with Los Angeles defeating the Atlanta Braves in four games and Milwaukee outlasting the San Diego Padres in four games. Now the top two seeds will face each other for a spot in the World Series.

Here is a look at some of the early information ahead of the NLCS rematch.

It's not going to be as easy this time for the Dodgers.

The two-time reigning World Series champions cruised to a four-game sweep of the Brewers in last year's series, but Milwaukee figures to pose a much more significant challenge in its second chance.

After all, this team won 103 games this season with World-Series-or-bust expectations since around the middle of the year. While last year's squad was coming off back-to-back losses in the NL Wild Card round, there is no happy-to-be-here feeling around the 2026 version that was just one step away from the World Series.

The Brewers also have arguably the game's best pitcher and the likely NL Cy Young winner in Jacob Misiorowski leading the way.

The fireballer took a major step this season, improving his ERA from 4.36 to 1.80. He led the league with 252 strikeouts and figures to take the ball multiple times over the course of an extended series.

But he is just one star pitcher facing a team that is loaded with them.

Los Angeles' pitching depth will ultimately make the difference in this series, like it will all the way to a third straight championship. It may be frustrating for fans of other teams, but it is as daunting of a task as one could face in baseball going up against the Dodgers' arms in a playoff series.

Tarik Skubal is an ace. Yoshinobu Yamamoto is an ace. Blake Snell is a two-time Cy Young winner. And Tyler Glasnow is as overqualified of a No. 4 starter as one could possibly imagine.

Even if Misiorowski wins a couple of games in the series, the Dodgers are going to have the starting pitching advantage every other time the right-hander is not on the mound.

Yamamoto may even be the best postseason pitcher in this series, as he captured last year's World Series MVP and picked up right where he left off by allowing just one run and striking out 10 in seven innings of work in a Game 3 win over the Braves on Tuesday.

He will be there to take the ball when the Dodgers need a series-turning win, and they will reach the Fall Classic once again.