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LOS ANGELES — Major League Baseball on Thursday announced umpires for both League Championship Series, and the NLCS umpires will be headed by crew chief Mike Winters.
This is the sixth LCS for Winters, who is in his 28th season in the majors. Winters has also worked four World Series, 10 Division Series and four wild card games. Winters begins the series at second base; here is the rest of the crew, with their Game 1 assignments:
Home plate: Lance Barksdale
First base: Todd Tichenor
Second base: Winters
Third base: Jim Wolf
Left field: Bill Welke
Right field: Alfonso Marquez
Eric Cooper will be on replay review for the first two games, with Barksdale taking replay duties from Game 3 through the end of the NLCS.
Wolf, the brother of old friend Randy Wolf, worked the 2015 NLDS between the Dodgers and Mets. Welke and Marquez worked the 2016 NLCS between the Dodgers and Cubs.
Dodgers Game 1 starter Clayton Kershaw is 0-3 with a 7.64 ERA in three starts with Barksdale behind the plate in his career, though he hasn’t started such a game since 2013.
Game 1 of the NLCS is Saturday night at Dodger Stadium at 5:08 p.m. PT, and will be televised by TBS. The Dodgers will play the winner of Thursday night’s NLDS Game 5 between the Cubs and Nationals.