Dodgers-Braves Opener Ranks Second-Hottest MLB Playoff Game

Helen Greene sat nine rows behind the visitors’ dugout in full sun, water bottle in hand, as the clock ran down toward the 1:00 p.m. PT first pitch on Saturday, Oct. 3, 2026. Her long hair stayed loose under a Braves cap. She was drinking water now and planning beer later.

“It's hot, but it's not bad. In Atlanta, my hair would have been up by now.”

Around her, fans worked the same exposure with what they had brought or been handed: misting fans along the concourses, giveaway towels draped over shoulders and heads, personal spray bottles fitted with small fans. Across the diamond, Christopher Hernández sat in the open sun behind the Dodgers dugout the same way, a towel on his head and a spray-fan bottle already in his grip. The seats held the heat without shade.

The Braves took batting practice outdoors in full sun. The Dodgers took their cuts too, then finished by 10:30 a.m., when the thermometer already read 94 degrees, and otherwise stayed inside.

Walt Weiss treated the conditions as familiar ground. “Remember, we're from Atlanta. It's not that big of a factor.” Lane Thomas agreed on the comparison. “I feel like this is a little cooler 98 than Atlanta.” Tarik Skubal, named the Game 1 starter for his postseason debut with the club, kept the focus on water. “Hopefully everyone is drinking a lot of water and staying hydrated. It’s going to be a hot one. I’m excited, though.” Dave Roberts stated the preference that applied to both sides: “I guess probably I would prefer to play at night. But as far as who we play, I don’t really I don’t think we really care. But I do think that yeah, it’s going to be a hot weekend, and to play at night would certainly be more beneficial.”

The same weekend heat sat on both clubs. The early afternoon slot belonged only to this opener.

The official game-time temperature was 100 degrees Fahrenheit. The left-field scoreboard showed 103. Feels-like temperature reached 105.

The only postseason game that had opened hotter was Game 1 of the 2017 World Series, contested on Oct. 24, 2017, against Houston and begun at a first-pitch temperature of 103 degrees. That identical 103-degree reading returned once more outside the postseason, when the Dodgers faced Cleveland on Sept. 8, 2024, and the first pitch again arrived at 103. Until this Saturday, the 2026 season had given neither the Dodgers nor the Braves a single game whose first-pitch temperature climbed above 97 degrees.

Dave Roberts had managed Los Angeles through the heat of that 2017 World Series Game 1. “Yeah, it was hot. It was hot. I think for us it’s obviously do as much as we can to stay hydrated... I’ll keep an eye on Will, but he’ll be fine.”

The average high in Los Angeles in early October is 81 degrees. The game sat roughly 20 degrees above normal. Downtown Los Angeles hit a record high of 102 on Friday. One account put Dodger Stadium at 105 on Saturday. AccuWeather and the National Weather Service issued extreme heat warnings approaching the local record of 108 degrees set in 1987. Short October heat spells are ordinary here; a stretch that carried the ballpark this far off the seasonal mark was not.

Tarik Skubal reduced the body’s arithmetic to water and sweat. “You’re just not going to the bathroom because you’re probably sweating it out. That’s probably how it is. You’re going to drink a lot of water.” Dave Roberts answered the condition both clubs shared. “It’s the same conditions for both teams, and you’ve got to just stay hydrated and manage it.”

The extreme heat warning held. Temperatures were forecast to remain above 100 degrees for Game 2 before the series shifted. Both clubs would play that next game still in Los Angeles under the same warning. Only after it would the series leave for Atlanta.

The widely shared images and tweets showed sparse crowds during the National Anthem at Dodger Stadium. They showed the same sparse crowds during the player introductions that followed. They showed them again in the bottom of the third inning, when the cameras found Shohei Ohtani on the field with vacant rows stretching behind him. Empty seats marked the bleachers. Empty seats marked the upper decks. The ballpark is the largest baseball stadium in the world by seat capacity, and large sections of it stood open for a National League Division Series opener.

The announced attendance was 50,194. The number did not erase the empty seats that remained visible in every shared frame. Get-in ticket prices on the secondary market ranged from $56 to $61. Those were the lowest costs of entry available to anyone who wanted a seat. Tickets had stayed on sale early Saturday through the official site and the secondary markets. The Dodgers had just set a regular-season franchise record with 4,034,219 tickets sold. That total represented a full season of demand at the same park. The Saturday playoff game left the seats empty anyway.

Misting fans still ran along the concourse. Sealed water bottles and refillable containers still were allowed at the gates.