National League Division Series
In Major League Baseball, the National League Division Series determines which two teams from the National League will advance to the National League Championship Series. The Division Series consists of two best-of-five series, featuring the three division winners and the winner of the wild-card play-off.
History
The Division Series was implemented in 1981 – for that season only – as a result of a midseason strike with first-place teams before the strike taking on the first-place teams after. In 1994, Major League Baseball decided to implement the Division Series permanently, because it was restructuring each league into three divisions. Previously, because of a players' strike in 1981, a split-season format forced a divisional playoff series, in which the Montreal Expos won the Eastern Division series over the Philadelphia Phillies three games to two while the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Houston Astros three games to two in the Western Division. The team with the best overall record in the major leagues, the Cincinnati Reds, failed to win their division in either half of that season and were controversially excluded, as were the St. Louis Cardinals, who finished with the NL's second-best record. The Atlanta Braves have currently played in the most NL division series with thirteen appearances. The St. Louis Cardinals have currently won the most NL division series, winning ten of the thirteen series in which they have played. The Pittsburgh Pirates were the last team to make their first appearance in the NL division series, making their debut in 2013 after winning the 2013 National League Wild Card Game. In 2008, the Milwaukee Brewers became the first team to play in division series in both leagues when they won the National League wild card, their first postseason berth since winning the American League East Division title in 1982 before switching leagues in 1998. Milwaukee had competed in an American League Division Series in the strike-shortened 1981 season.Format
The NLDS is a five-game series where the wild-card team is assigned to play the divisional winner with the best winning percentage in the regular season. The two remaining divisional winners meet in the other series with the team with the second best winning percentage, hosting that series. The two series winners move on to the best-of-seven NLCS. The winner of the wild card has won the first round seven out of the 11 years since the re-alignment and creation of the NLDS. According to Nate Silver, the advent of this playoff series, and especially of the wild card, has caused teams to focus more on "getting to the playoffs" rather than "winning the pennant" as the primary goal of the regular season.Initially, the best-of-5 series played in a 2-3 format, with the first two games set at home for the lower-seed team and the last three for the higher seed. Since 1998, the series has followed a 2-2-1 format, where the higher seed team plays at home in Games 1 and 2, the lower seed plays at home in Game 3 and Game 4, and if a Game 5 is needed, the teams return to the higher seed's field. When MLB added a second wild card team in 2012, the Division Series re-adopted the 2-3 format due to scheduling conflicts. It reverted to the 2-2-1 format from 2013 onwards.
NLDS results
- Team names link to the season in which each team played
| Year | Winner | Manager | Loser | Manager | Wins | Losses |
| 1981 | Montreal Expos | Philadelphia Phillies | 3 | 2 | ||
| 1981 | Los Angeles Dodgers | Houston Astros | 3 | 2 | ||
| 1995 | Atlanta Braves | Colorado Rockies | 3 | 1 | ||
| 1995 | Cincinnati Reds | Los Angeles Dodgers | 3 | 0 | ||
| 1996 | Atlanta Braves | Los Angeles Dodgers | 3 | 0 | ||
| 1996 | St. Louis Cardinals | San Diego Padres | 3 | 0 | ||
| 1997 | Atlanta Braves | Houston Astros | 3 | 0 | ||
| 1997 | Florida Marlins | San Francisco Giants | 3 | 0 | ||
| 1998 | Atlanta Braves | Chicago Cubs | 3 | 0 | ||
| 1998 | San Diego Padres | Houston Astros | 3 | 1 | ||
| 1999 | Atlanta Braves | Houston Astros | 3 | 1 | ||
| 1999 | New York Mets | Arizona Diamondbacks | 3 | 1 | ||
| 2000 | St. Louis Cardinals | Atlanta Braves | 3 | 0 | ||
| 2000 | New York Mets | San Francisco Giants | 3 | 1 | ||
| 2001 | Atlanta Braves | Houston Astros | 3 | 0 | ||
| 2001 | Arizona Diamondbacks | St. Louis Cardinals | 3 | 2 | ||
| 2002 | St. Louis Cardinals | Arizona Diamondbacks | 3 | 0 | ||
| 2002 | San Francisco Giants | Atlanta Braves | 3 | 2 | ||
| 2003 | Chicago Cubs | Atlanta Braves | 3 | 2 | ||
| 2003 | Florida Marlins | San Francisco Giants | 3 | 1 | ||
| 2004 | St. Louis Cardinals | Los Angeles Dodgers | 3 | 1 | ||
| 2004 | Houston Astros | Atlanta Braves | 3 | 2 | ||
| 2005 | St. Louis Cardinals | San Diego Padres | 3 | 0 | ||
| 2005 | Houston Astros | Atlanta Braves | 3 | 1 | ||
| 2006 | New York Mets | Los Angeles Dodgers | 3 | 0 | ||
| 2006 | St. Louis Cardinals | San Diego Padres | 3 | 1 | ||
| 2007 | Colorado Rockies | Philadelphia Phillies | 3 | 0 | ||
| 2007 | Arizona Diamondbacks | Chicago Cubs | 3 | 0 | ||
| 2008 | Los Angeles Dodgers | Chicago Cubs | 3 | 0 | ||
| 2008 | Philadelphia Phillies | Milwaukee Brewers | 3 | 1 | ||
| 2009 | Los Angeles Dodgers | St. Louis Cardinals | 3 | 0 | ||
| 2009 | Philadelphia Phillies | Colorado Rockies | 3 | 1 | ||
| 2010 | Philadelphia Phillies | Cincinnati Reds | 3 | 0 | ||
| 2010 | San Francisco Giants | Atlanta Braves | 3 | 1 | ||
| 2011 | St. Louis Cardinals | Philadelphia Phillies | 3 | 2 | ||
| 2011 | Milwaukee Brewers | Arizona Diamondbacks | 3 | 2 | ||
| 2012 | San Francisco Giants | Cincinnati Reds | 3 | 2 | ||
| 2012 | St. Louis Cardinals | Washington Nationals | 3 | 2 | ||
| 2013 | St. Louis Cardinals | Pittsburgh Pirates | 3 | 2 | ||
| 2013 | Los Angeles Dodgers | Atlanta Braves | 3 | 1 | ||
| 2014 | St. Louis Cardinals | Los Angeles Dodgers | 3 | 1 | ||
| 2014 | San Francisco Giants | Washington Nationals | 3 | 1 | ||
| 2015 | New York Mets | Los Angeles Dodgers | 3 | 2 | ||
| 2015 | Chicago Cubs | St. Louis Cardinals | 3 | 1 | ||
| 2016 | Los Angeles Dodgers | Washington Nationals | 3 | 2 | ||
| 2016 | Chicago Cubs | San Francisco Giants | 3 | 1 | ||
| 2017 | Chicago Cubs | Washington Nationals | 3 | 2 | ||
| 2017 | Los Angeles Dodgers | Arizona Diamondbacks | 3 | 0 | ||
| 2018 | Milwaukee Brewers | Colorado Rockies | 3 | 0 | ||
| 2018 | Los Angeles Dodgers | Atlanta Braves | 3 | 1 | ||
| 2019 | Washington Nationals | Dave Martinez | Los Angeles Dodgers | Dave Roberts | 3 | 2 |
| 2019 | St. Louis Cardinals | Atlanta Braves | 3 | 2 |
NLDS appearances
| Apps | Team | Wins | Losses | Win % | Most recent win | Most recent appearance | Games won | Games lost | Game win % |
| 15 | Atlanta Braves | 6 | 9 | 2001 | 2019 | 30 | 29 | ||
| 14 | St. Louis Cardinals | 11 | 3 | 2019 | 2019 | 36 | 20 | ||
| 14 | Los Angeles Dodgers | 7 | 7 | 2018 | 2019 | 27 | 27 | ||
| 8 | San Francisco Giants | 4 | 4 | 2014 | 2016 | 15 | 18 | ||
| 7 | Houston Astros | 2 | 5 | 2005 | 2005 | 10 | 18 | ||
| 7 | Chicago Cubs | 4 | 3 | 2017 | 2017 | 12 | 15 | ||
| 6 | Philadelphia Phillies | 3 | 3 | 2010 | 2011 | 13 | 11 | ||
| 6 | Arizona Diamondbacks | 2 | 4 | 2007 | 2017 | 9 | 14 | ||
| 6 | Washington Nationals | 2 | 4 | 2019 | 2019 | 13 | 16 | ||
| 4 | New York Mets | 4 | 0 | 2015 | 2015 | 12 | 4 | ||
| 4 | San Diego Padres | 1 | 3 | 1998 | 2006 | 4 | 10 | ||
| 4 | Colorado Rockies | 1 | 3 | 2007 | 2018 | 5 | 9 | ||
| 3 | Cincinnati Reds | 1 | 2 | 1995 | 2012 | 5 | 6 | ||
| 3 | Milwaukee Brewers | 2 | 1 | 2018 | 2018 | 7 | 5 | ||
| 2 | Miami Marlins | 2 | 0 | 2003 | 2003 | 6 | 1 | ||
| 1 | Pittsburgh Pirates | 0 | 1 | — | 2013 | 2 | 3 |
Team no is no longer in the National League
Includes the franchise's win in 1981 as the Montreal Expos.