Dodgers face long odds down 0-2 in the NLDS

It’s no secret the Dodgers are in a rough spot in the National League Division Series, needing to win three games in a row to keep their season alive. First up is Game 3, which is the first game at Chase Field in Phoenix this postseason.

There have been 30 playoffs with Division Series, beginning with the strike season in 1981, and then in every postseason dating back to 1995. That’s four Division Series each season, 120 in total, all best-of-five affairs.

The Dodgers are the 25th team to lose the first two games of a Division Series at home. Of the previous 24 teams, 14 were swept away in Game 3, including the Orioles on Tuesday night in Arlington against the Rangers.

Five teams lost the series in four games. Two others forced a fifth game but still lost the series.

Three teams emerged victorious after dropping the first two Division Series games at home, each comeback remembered for a signature play:

• 2001 Yankees: Derek Jeter flip play against the A’s
• 2012 Giants: Buster Posey grand slam against the Reds
• 2015 Blue Jays: José Bautista bat flip home run against the Rangers

The Dodgers have been in this spot twice before in the Division Series, in both 1995 and 1996. This was in the middle of a long dry period for the Dodgers in October, with their first two postseason series since 1988, and the club didn’t get back to the playoffs again until 2004.

The format was a bit different back then, in that “home-field advantage” meant starting the first two games on the road, before finishing up with potentially three games at home.

The Dodgers in 1995 lost the first two games to the Reds in Los Angeles, before Hideo Nomo and friends got torched 10-1 in Game 3 in Cincinnati to finish things off.

In 1996, the Dodgers lost two one-run games to John Smoltz and Greg Maddux at Dodger Stadium, then Nomo took the loss another season-ending Game 3, this one 5-2 to Tom Glavine and the Braves.