The 2020 National League Division Series were two best-of-five-games series in Major League Baseball (MLB) to determine the participating teams in the 2020 National League Championship Series. These matchups were: (1) Los Angeles Dodgers (West Division champions) vs. (4) San Diego Padres (West Division 2nd place): Dodgers win series 3–0. (2) Atlanta Braves (East Division champions) vs. (6) Miami Marlins (East Division 2nd place): Braves win series 3–0.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all games for each of the two series were held at two neutral sites at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas and at Minute Maid Park in Houston, Texas. The games were televised nationally by FS1 and MLB Network.
Both series ended in a sweep for the first time in the NL since 2007, as the Dodgers and Braves advanced to the NLCS.
The Dodgers went on to defeat the Braves in the NLCS, then won the 2020 World Series over the American League champion Tampa Bay Rays. This was the Dodgers' first World Series title since 1988.
Background
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the MLB season was reduced to 60 games. As part of a special postseason format, playoff berths were made available for eight teams in each league: three division winners, three division runners-up, and two wild card teams. With no first round byes for division winners, all teams were required to play in a Wild Card Series.
Between the two leagues, Central division teams claimed three of the four wild card berths and thus made up seven of the sixteen teams in the Wild Card. However, all seven Central division teams lost their Wild Card series, thus leaving the Division series in both leagues to be contested exclusively by teams from Eastern and Western divisions.
The Dodgers entered the NLDS as the top seed, having completed the regular season at and winning the NL West. The Braves won the NL East, going . The two second place teams in their respective divisions, the Marlins and the Padres, also made the NLDS. Since 2012, when MLB removed the stipulation that two teams could not play each other in the NLDS if they were in the same division, there had been six occasions when an NLDS had at least one series with two division opponents. This was the seventh time that this occurred, and also the first time since the strike-affected 1981 National League Division Series (where division opponents were assured of facing each other on a one-time basis) that both NLDS match-ups consisted of division opponents facing each other.
As part of the terms set for postseason, all games starting with the division series would be played at neutral sites. The Dodgers and Padres played at Globe Life Field, while the Braves and Marlins played at Minute Maid Park.
The higher seed served as the "home team" (i.e., batted second each inning) for Games 1, 2, and 5, while the lower seed as the "home team" for Games 3 and 4, mirroring the 2–2–1 format typically used in the Division Series.
Matchups
Los Angeles Dodgers vs. San Diego Padres
Atlanta Braves vs. Miami Marlins
Los Angeles vs. San Diego
This was the first postseason match-up between the Dodgers and Padres. The Dodgers won six of ten games against the Padres during the 60-game regular season. This was the first postseason series to feature two California teams since the 2002 World Series and first ever with teams from Southern California.
Game 1
Mike Clevinger returned to the mound for the Padres but was pulled after one inning after a noticeable drop in velocity. The game remained scoreless until the fourth inning, when the Padres scored on a two-out hit from Austin Nola. San Diego enjoyed their lead briefly – until the Dodgers scored on an error in the fifth. Then a game that had been well-pitched to that point boiled over in the sixth, when the Dodgers put up four runs to win by a 5–1 score. Just like Game 3 of their wild card win over the Cardinals, the Padres used nine pitchers and walked ten batters, along the way.