Tuesday night, the San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers begin their National League Division Series matchup at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas. The pair of NL West rivals are meeting for the first time ever in the playoffs. To get here, the Padres beat the Cardinals in three games in last week’s Wild Card Series, while the Dodgers swept the Brewers in the opening round.

Let’s set the scene for Game 1 with the essentials.

How to watch

Date: Tuesday, Oct. 6 | Time: 9:38 p.m. ET
Location: Globe Life Field (Arlington, Texas)
TV: FS1 | Stream: fuboTV (try for free)
Odds: Padres: (+150) | Dodgers: (-160) | O/U: 8.5
Pitchers: RHP Mike Clevinger vs. RHP Walker Buehler
Follow: CBS Sports App    

Preview

These may be the two best teams in the National League, but the seeding is such that they’re running into each before the LCS round. During the regular season, the Dodgers finished an MLB-best 43-17 with an MLB-best plus-136 run differential. The Padres, meantime, went 37-23 for the second-best record in the NL with a run differential of plus-84, which was second only to that of the Dodgers across all of baseball. The Dodgers won six of 10 head-to-head games against San Diego this season.

The Padres have yet to fully sort out their NLDS rotation, but word came Tuesday that right hander Mike Clevinger will get the nod for Game 1. Ace Dinelson Lamet has been left off the NLDS roster due to biceps tightness, so it’ll be interesting to see how things shake out from there. We do know it’s Clevinger in Game 1, though. The Dodgers counter with Buehler, who over the course of his young career has combined elite stuff with elite results. 

Prediction

Given Buehler’s excellence and the uncertainty surrounding the Padres’ pitching staff as a whole due to the injury situations, we’ll lean Dodgers in Game 1. Mookie Betts goes off with a homer and a double in his Dodger NLDS debut.