Milwaukee swept the Los Angeles Dodgers 4-0 in the National League Championship Series, with Game 4 ending on 16 October 2026 UK time, so the Dodgers will not play in the 2026 World Series, as MLB's postseason bracket and The Guardian show.
History. 3 of 4 such teams reached the final.
Hunch. The Dodgers must first win a level series with two games away, and then most likely face Milwaukee, the best team of the season.
Resolves on the official MLB bracket after the National League Championship Series ends, at the latest on 20 October 2026: YES if the Dodgers win it, NO if they are knocked out in any series. A moved game moves the date. BBC Sport and The Guardian are the backup.
We looked for cases where a team that had won two championships in a row skipped the first round of the next play-offs and played for a third title. We found no baseball team like this that we could check, so we looked at ice hockey and basketball, which also decide titles in series. We found four, from 1932 to 1978.