Tyler Glasnow is being thrown right back into the fire by the Dodgers.

The former All-Star right-hander’s first start in almost three months will be on Tuesday in the opening game of the most important series that remains on their schedule.

Dodgers versus Braves.

Truist Park in suburban Atlanta.

“I’m honestly just happy I get to go start,” Glasnow told the California Post. “It does make it cooler that it’s a meaningful game. It’s a little more exciting.”

This will be an October series played in August, as the three games in the middle of a notoriously tacky mixed-used development will have massive postseason implications.

At stake: A bye in the Wild-Card round of the playoffs.

Only two teams in each league will advance directly to a Division Series, and whether the Dodgers can hold on to the position that would grant them that distinction could ultimately determine whether they win a third consecutive World Series.

The Dodgers have taken both routes to a title, with a first-round bye in 2024 and without one last year, but considering how up and down their aging and injury-ravaged lineup has performed this season, they don’t want to have to take their chances in a best-of-three Wild Card Series that will be over in a blink. Their offense goes cold for two games in a series like that, and it won’t just be Kyle Tucker being called a choker the entire winter.

Manager Dave Roberts has emphasized the value of a first-round bye in recent weeks, and he repeated the message again after the Dodgers swept the lowly Pirates over the weekend.

“It’s important,” Roberts said.

With an 80-51 record, the Dodgers are one of three National League teams that remain in serious contention for a top-two seed. One is the Milwaukee Brewers, who have the best record in the entire major leagues at 81-50 and are in line to have home-field advantage throughout the postseason. The other is the Braves, who are 76-55.

The Braves have lost seven of their last 10 games, and the upcoming games will present the Dodgers with a chance to metaphorically bury them under the nearest Waffle House. 

The enormous reward for entering the playoffs as the No. 2 seed instead of No. 3 first appeared in 2022 when Major League Baseball adopted its current 12-team postseason format. Under this system, six teams from each league make the playoffs: The three division winners and three wild-card teams.

The top two seeds are rewarded first-round byes. There are two Wild Card Series, one in which the No. 3 seed faces the third-best wild-card team and the other in which the two best wild-card teams play each other.

Last year, the Dodgers were the No. 3 seed and were forced to play the Reds in a Wild Card Series. With Blake Snell and Yoshinobu Yamamoto starting the first two games of the series, the Dodgers swept the Reds, two games to none.

Returning to the Wild Card round could result in a series against a division rival, as the San Diego Padres have the final wild-card spot at the moment. The team right behind them is the Arizona Diamondbacks.

But it shouldn’t come to that for the Dodgers.

With Ronald Acuña Jr. not hitting, the Braves are in an offensive funk, and what are the chances they come out of it against Glanow, Roki Sasaki and Yoshinobu Yamamoto?

Glasnow has been sidelined since May 6 with back spasms, but he was downright nasty in the final start of his minor-league rehabilitation assignment, striking out nine batters in 5 ⅓ innings. Sasaki has posted a 2.31 earned-run average in the six starts he’s made since the All-Star break. Yamamoto is, well, Yamamoto.

The Braves don’t have the pitching to match up – not only in this series, but also for the remainder of the season – as unspectacular Tyler Mahle was the only starting pitcher they added before the trade deadline. They had a deal in place for Jacob deGrom, but deGrom exercised his no-trade clause and the Braves were unable to find a replacement for Spencer Strider, who could miss the remainder of the season.

There will be urgency on the part of the Dodgers to sweep this series, as the Braves currently lead their season series two games to one by virtue of their meeting in early May at Dodger Stadium. Head-to-head record is the first tiebreaker, followed by intradivision record.

The Dodgers are 26-17 in the NL West. The Braves are 27-13 in the NL East.

“Hopefully,” Roberts said, “it doesn’t come into play.”