Diamondbacks vs. Dodgers 2017 live stream: Time, TV channel, and how to watch NLDS Game 1 online

The Los Angeles Dodgers and Arizona Diamondbacks have faced each other 19 times already this season, so there will be a lot of familiarity when the two teams open their National League Division Series with Game 1 on Friday night at Dodger Stadium (10:30 p.m. ET, TBS).

These two teams had the best run differentials in the National League in 2017, with the Dodgers outscoring their opponents by 190 runs en route to the best record in baseball at 104-58. The Diamondbacks (+153 runs) finished with 93 wins, a better record than the division-winning Chicago Cubs and matching the AL East champion Boston Red Sox.

Arizona already dispatched one National League West foe in beating the Colorado Rockies on Wednesday in a thrilling NL Wild Card Game in Phoenix. Now they face another in the Dodgers, a team the Diamondbacks have beaten in their last six meetings.

“Everything is a brand-new season. It’s the start of season two for us. So we’ve got a few boxes to check, and we’ve got to go out and earn things just the same we did all year long. That was my message to the team,” Arizona manager Torey Lovullo said on Wednesday night. “We know that we played well against the Dodgers but that’s going to probably prep them to be ready for a team that going to come in and battle them for as long as we possibly can.”

Arizona won 11 of 19 games against Los Angeles during the regular season.

Clayton Kershaw starts in Game 1 for the Dodgers. Andy McCullough of the Los Angeles Times recounts Kershaw’s surprise relief appearance to close out last year’s NLDS Game 5 win:

“What the …?” Friedman said. He figured it must be a ploy by Roberts to rattle Washington manager Dusty Baker. Little else made sense. Only one day separated Kershaw from his grueling 110-pitch outing in Game 4. Only three months separated him from the herniated disk that could have ended his season.

As Kershaw loosened up in the bullpen, a phone rang inside Friedman’s suite. It was a member of the training staff. “Kersh is going to see if he can get loose,” the trainer said. “And there was nothing we could do to stop him.”

The Diamondbacks used both of their top two starters — Zack Greinke and Robbie Ray — in the NL Wild Card Game, leaving them unavailable for at least the first game of the NLDS. But Wednesday was a game the Diamondbacks had to win. Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic has more:

After today, I’ve pretty much seen everything,” Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said. “It was a crazy game.”

The Diamondbacks’ ace, Zack Greinke, was chased in the fourth. Their No. 2 starter, Robbie Ray, logged 2 1/3 innings in relief. Their best reliever, Archie Bradley, contributed more at the plate than he did on the mound. And the Diamondbacks’ lineup seemed to produce a new hero every inning.

“From the atmosphere to the big-time plays, the big-time hits, the back-and-forth, it was awesome,” center fielder A.J. Pollock said. “It was incredible. I’m exhausted.”

The Dodgers’ last 15 postseason series, dating back to 1988, have gone exactly the same. The winner of Game 1 has won the series:

The last time the Dodgers’ Game 1 result was different than the series was the 1988 National League Championship Series, when the Mets spoiled Orel Hershiser’s 67-inning scoreless streak with three runs in the ninth inning to take Game 1, only to have the Dodgers win the series in seven games.

By comparison, in all five-game series in MLB during that span (dating back to 1995, the first year of the wild card), the team that won the first game won 61 of 88 series (69.3%).