The Atlanta Braves have already won their three-game series against the Los Angeles Dodgers this week, taking the first two games at Truist Park before the teams play their scheduled finale Thursday night.
Key facts
- Braves won game one 4-3 on August 25, snapping the Dodgers’ six-game winning streak.
- Braves won game two 6-5 on a walk-off single on August 26.
- Ozzie Albies set Atlanta’s single-season sacrifice-fly record with his 13th of the year, breaking a mark shared by Hank Aaron and Del Crandall.
- Dodgers starter Tyler Glasnow made his first start since early May, after a lower-back injury.
- Game three: Thursday, August 27, 7:15 p.m. ET at Truist Park — available previews list Chris Sale vs. Yoshinobu Yamamoto as the probable matchup.
Two wins this week
Game one: Braves 4-3 (August 25)
Atlanta opened with a 4-3 win, snapping a six-game winning streak the Dodgers had carried into Atlanta. Ozzie Albies drove in the go-ahead run with an eighth-inning single that scored Matt Olson, and closer Raisel Iglesias sealed it for his 28th save of the season. Shohei Ohtani tripled for the Dodgers in the ninth, but Los Angeles couldn’t push across another run. Albies also made franchise history that day: his sacrifice fly was his 13th of the season, breaking Atlanta’s single-season record — a mark Hank Aaron and Del Crandall had shared until now.
Game two: Braves 6-5, walk-off (August 26)
The Braves followed that up with a wilder finish, winning 6-5 on a walk-off single. With two outs in the bottom of the ninth, pinch-hitter Ha-Seong Kim singled home Lane Thomas to end it. Atlanta out-hit the Dodgers 14 to 10 in a game that took just over three hours and drew more than 37,000 fans to Truist Park.
Glasnow’s return
The series also marked the return of Dodgers starter Tyler Glasnow, who took the mound August 25 for his first start since a lower-back injury sidelined him in early May. He struck out seven over five innings.
What’s left: Thursday’s finale
Game three is scheduled for Thursday, August 27, at 7:15 p.m. ET at Truist Park. Available previews list the Braves’ Chris Sale and the Dodgers’ Yoshinobu Yamamoto as the probable starters; Sale carries a 12-9 record and a 2.20 ERA this season, while Yamamoto is 12-7 with a 2.61 ERA. The game will air nationally on FS1/FOX One, with BravesVision and Spectrum SportsNet LA carrying regional coverage, and it will also stream on MLB.TV.
Why this series matters
Both teams enter the week atop their divisions. The Dodgers hold a comfortable lead in the NL West — about nine games. The Braves’ lead in the NL East over the Philadelphia Phillies has been narrower — about four games, growing with each of this week’s wins — after shrinking in the weeks before this series, as Atlanta won just three of its previous ten games while the Phillies caught fire.
Beyond the standings, both clubs are jockeying for one of the National League’s two first-round playoff byes — reserved for the league’s top two seeds, letting them skip the opening round of the playoffs. Atlanta won two of three games when the teams met earlier in the 2026 season, and pre-series reporting said that winning at least two of the three games in this series would secure the head-to-head tiebreaker for postseason seeding. The Braves have now won the first two games, but the available reporting does not explicitly confirm that the tiebreaker is secured.
The finale will determine whether the Braves complete a sweep or the Dodgers avoid being swept in the three-game set.
Sources and further reading
- 2026 MLB Standings and Records: Regular Season
- MLB Gameday: Dodgers vs Braves box (final)
- Albies’ clutch single gives Braves big win over NL rival Dodgers
- MLB Gameday live updates: Dodgers at Braves 08/26/2026
- Dodgers, Braves series could determine seeding in 2026 playoffs
- MLB Gameday: Dodgers at Braves, Probable Pitchers, Lineups, and more