Dodgers-Braves start times set for Games 1 and 2

If you have tickets for playoff games at Dodger Stadium, and you would like to know what time the games start so you can plan your weekend or ask your boss for time off – sorry, you’ll have to wait a few more days.

Such is the power of television, and its billions that flow to Major League Baseball. When the league released division series game times Monday, the announcement covered games through Saturday.

The Dodgers open the National League division series in Atlanta on Thursday, with first pitch set for 5:37 p.m. PDT. For Game 2, on Friday in Atlanta, first pitch is set for 3:07 p.m. PDT.

The series then moves to Dodger Stadium, for Game 3 on Sunday and, if necessary, Game 4 on Oct. 7. If the series goes the maximum five games, the Braves would play host to Game 5 on Oct. 9.

The Braves’ Kris Medlen, named Monday as NL pitcher of the month for September, faces the Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw in Game 1. Medlen went 4-0 with a 1.00 earned-run average in September, 15-12 with a 3.11 ERA overall.

Kershaw went 16-9 with a 1.83 ERA, the first major leaguer in eight years to finish with an ERA under 2.00.

The national broadcast crews: Ernie Johnson, Ron Darling and Cal Ripken for TBS; Dan Shulman and Orel Hershiser on ESPN Radio.

There is a hometown option: turn down the volume on the television broadcast and listen to Vin Scully on AM 570. Scully will call the first three and last three innings of each game on the Dodgers’ flagship radio station, with Charlie Steiner and Rick Monday in between.