Dodgers eyeing repeat of 2020 NLCS

ATLANTA — The Atlanta Braves know what happened last October and want to avoid a repeat. The Los Angeles Dodgers plan on an encore.

Atlanta held 2-0 and 3-1 leads in the NL Championship Series before the Dodgers won three consecutive games in a playoff entirely at the neutral ballpark of Arlington, Texas, then beat Tampa Bay for their first World Series title since 1988.

The host Braves won the first two games of this year’s NLCS, then LA took two of three at Dodger Stadium forcing a Game 6 back at Truist Park on Saturday night with the Braves still one win from their first Series trip since 1999.

“I think we’ve got a mental advantage right now, getting back on that plane and going back there playing Game 6,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Friday. “History’s a powerful thing to the mind, and so we feel good and I think that we’re going to use it to our advantage.”

Even so, Roberts acknowledged “at the end of the day we still got to go out there and play a good baseball game.”

Facing elimination, the Dodgers turned up their power game to beat the

Braves 11-2 on Thursday night.

First baseman Freddie Freeman says the Braves must prove they won’t follow the same path to another collapse. Atlanta has a revamped outfield and home-field advantage,

“It seems because every day it’s brought up the last couple days,” Freeman said of last year’s collapse. “So I don’t think we have a choice until we kill that narrative. We’re up 3-2 and we’re going home. That’s a great position to be in.”