Of course, it has to be the Dodgers that the D-backs face in the National League Division Series. Who else could it be but the team that has bedeviled Arizona for the past decade?

The two teams famously brawled in 2013, a fracas that saw Dodgers coach Mark McGwire and Arizona coach Matt Williams go nose to nose and L.A. skipper Don Mattingly toss D-backs bench coach Alan Trammell to the side.

Later that same year, the Dodgers clinched a postseason berth at Chase Field and infuriated the D-backs by jumping into the pool beyond the right-center-field wall to celebrate.

The Dodgers have won 10 of the past 11 NL West titles, so they¡¯ve beaten up on a lot of teams, but there¡¯s no team for which they¡¯ve caused greater angst than the D-backs.

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¡°I'll give them their props,¡± rookie outfielder Corbin Carroll said. ¡°You know, they're a great team. Just great lineup, good pitching, but you know, we've played them all year, we know what they are, we know what they're not. You know, I wouldn't count us out.¡±

When the 2023 regular-season schedule was released, the D-backs were scheduled to play the Dodgers eight times in their first 10 games. Manager Torey Lovullo said he heard from friends and family how concerned they were about the rugged schedule to start the year.

Lovullo said he told them that to be the best, you have to beat the best, and that he was excited for the challenge.

The D-backs wound up 5-3 in those games, though the Dodgers were still trying to sort out their pitching staff.

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The D-backs lost a pair of games at home against the Dodgers in early August, but that was part of the low point in their season, when Arizona lost nine in a row.

The real kick in the stomach to the D-backs was the series at Dodger Stadium at the end of August. Arizona came in riding high. The team had righted the ship after the losing streak, winning 12 of 15 games. The D-backs were rolling, and they were sure that it would carry over into that series.

Instead, the Dodgers swept the D-backs, outscoring them 23-5 while beating Arizona¡¯s top pitchers Merrill Kelly and Zac Gallen, who figure to start the first two games of the Division Series.

¡°I don¡¯t think it¡¯s any secret that the Dodgers have for sure had the division¡¯s number, had our number,¡± Gallen said. ¡°I think we¡¯ve also showed growth in the sense of the mindset, and the culture change here of being able to go into Dodger Stadium and hang with them.¡±

Dodger Stadium has been a house of horrors for the D-backs. Since 2020, they are 5-24 there, and they lost the first two games of the 2017 NLDS at Chavez Ravine.

¡°We haven't played very well against them,¡± D-backs GM Mike Hazen said. ¡°But now we¡¯ve got a new season, just like we talked about. We weren't hitting very well before we came into [the NL Wild Card] Series, and that all changed. They're going to have to beat us. We're a tough team. We do a lot of things really well. I think if we do those things, we're going to give them a run for their money, for sure.¡±

The D-backs will have their pitching lined up the way they want it, with Kelly available to go in Game 1 and Gallen in Game 2.

Kelly has had his share of struggles against the Dodgers in his career, going 0-11 with a 5.49 ERA in 16 career starts against them. This year, he is 0-1 with a 7.27 ERA in two starts at Dodger Stadium.

"We're going to have to go through them either way, right?¡± Kelly said. ¡°Even if we¡¯d had the second seed [and played] Philly and somehow got out of there, we would have had to see them after the Braves, right? I feel like at this stage, you can't really pick who you're going to play. At this stage, everybody's good. Right? So if our choices are Atlanta or L.A., I mean, flip a coin.¡±

Kelly is right in the sense that both the Dodgers and Braves are outstanding teams, but the D-backs have more history with the Dodgers.

It had to be them.