The St. Louis Cardinals defeated the Atlanta Braves in Game 5 of the National League Division Series to punch their ticket to the NL Championship Series for the first time since 2014. They await the winner of NLDS Game 5 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Washington Nationals.
Their opponent would determine home-field advantage in the NLCS, as that would go to the Dodgers if they advance but the Cardinals hold the edge over the Wild Card entrant Nationals.
The Cardinals reached the second round of the playoffs by closing out the NLDS with back-to-back victories. They rallied in the eighth inning of Game 4 and earned a walk-off win in the 10th to force a deciding matchup at SunTrust Park that the Cardinals then trounced the Braves in Game 5.
If the Dodgers advance to the NLCS, their postseason matchup with the Cardinals would mark the first since the teams met in 2014. St. Louis eliminated L.A. in four games in the NLDS that year.
The Cardinals and Dodgers have five all-time postseason meetings: 1985 NLCS, 2004 NLDS, 2009 NLDS, 2013 NLCS and 2014 NLDS. Those have heavily favored the Cardinals, as they won each series but the 2009 NLDS.
The Cardinals and Nationals have met just once in the postseason — the 2012 NLDS — which St. Louis won in five games.
TBS has exclusive broadcasting rights for the NLCS. Along with their television broadcasts, games can be streamed online via the Watch TBS app.
An alternative for those without a cable subscription is signing up for Sling TV and fuboTV, or streaming through PlayStation Vue, YouTube TV, Hulu and others.
SlingTV offers a subscription for $15 per month for the “Sling Orange” package, which has TBS, allowing access to the NLDS games.
Postseason games for MLB.TV subscribers are only available for those with “authenticated access,” meaning customers who also purchase participating cable or satellite services. Because every postseason game is nationally broadcast, a standard MLB.TV account will not suffice.
A workaround is MLB’s playoff streaming service, Postseason.TV, but that only grants access to “live alternative video feeds,” and not the regular game broadcast, which remains blacked out. Archived broadcasts are available roughly two hours after the final out of a game is recorded.
Complete 2019 NLCS schedule with available start times and TV information
Game 1: Friday, Oct. 11, 5:08 p.m. PT (TBS)
Game 2: Saturday, Oct. 12, 1:08 p.m. (TBS)
Game 3: Monday, Oct. 14, TBA (TBS)
Game 4: Tuesday, Oct. 15, TBA (TBS)
Game 5*: Wednesday, Oct. 16, TBA (TBS)
Game 6*: Friday, Oct. 18, TBA (TBS)
Game 7*: Saturday, Oct. 19, TBA (TBS)
*if necessary
