The three divisional winners, seeded first through third, and a fourth team — determined by the NL Wild Card Game — played in two series.

The San Francisco Giants clinched the National League West and home-field advantage throughout the entire playoffs with a 107–55 record on October 3, the last day of the regular season.

The Dodgers and Giants divisional race became only the fourth time a pair of 100 win teams in the same division were separated by one game, the others being: 1915 Red Sox/Tigers; 1962 Giants/Dodgers; and 1993 Braves/Giants.

It is most famous for the walk-off home run hit by Bobby Thomson of the Giants in the deciding game, which has come to be known as baseball's "Shot Heard 'Round the World".

In California, and with identical 101–61 records after 162 games, the teams met with a pennant on the line in the 1962 National League tie-breaker series.

The Dodgers scored the first two runs in the second on RBI singles by Urías and Mookie Betts with the Giants getting one back in the bottom of the inning on a sacrifice fly by Donovan Solano.

The Dodgers then scored four runs in the sixth on back-to-back doubles by Cody Bellinger and A. J. Pollock and they added three more in the eighth on a Will Smith homer and RBI singles by Matt Beaty and Corey Seager off of relievers Zack Littell and Jarlin García.

Alex Wood and three relievers combined to hold the Dodgers scoreless for the second time in the series and the Giants took back the lead with a 1–0 victory.

Walker Buehler, starting on short rest for the first time in his career, pitched 4+1⁄3 innings for the Dodgers, walking two and giving up only three hits.

[16] The most recent prior Game 5 in a Division Series for the Dodgers was 2019, which they lost to the Washington Nationals, and for the Giants was 2012, which they won over the Cincinnati Reds.

The Dodgers scored a run in the top off the ninth off of Giants closer Camilo Doval, via a hit by pitch and singles by Gavin Lux and Cody Bellinger.

The 2021 Dodgers also join the 2020 Rays, 2001 Diamondbacks and 1972 Athletics as teams to eke out multiple winner-take-all victories by a margin of no more than two runs in a single postseason.

Earlier in the year, the Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Golden State Warriors in the NBA’s Play-In Game.

2021 NLDS (3–2): Los Angeles Dodgers beat San Francisco Giants This was the first postseason matchup between the Braves and the Brewers.

The game was scoreless until the bottom of the seventh, when Rowdy Tellez hit a two-run home run off of Morton to give Milwaukee the lead.

The Braves made things interesting in the ninth against All-Star closer Josh Hader, but he closed the door after getting former Brewer Orlando Arcia to groundout to Kolten Wong.

The Brewers also had a bases loaded situation in the 9th, but closer Will Smith induced a game ending double-play off the bat of Luke Maile to tie the series at 1.

In an attempt to try to get the offense going, Brewers starting pitcher Freddy Peralta was pulled after throwing four scoreless innings, as his spot was due up in the top of the fifth with runners on base.

It did not work out as the Brewers threat was stopped and Joc Pederson belted a three-run home run in the fifth inning after Peralta was removed.

The game remained tied until the bottom of the eighth inning when Freddie Freeman sent a Josh Hader slider into the left-center field bleachers to give the Braves a one-run lead.