Background
Due to the 1981 Major League Baseball strike, a team had to win two postseason series in order to go to the World Series. Teams that finished first in their division in the first and second halves of the season advanced to the postseason. This was the first year the baseball postseason had three rounds, an arrangement that would become permanent beginning with the 1995 season. The Expos advanced to the NLCS after defeating the defending world champion Philadelphia Phillies in the NL Division Series three games to two, and the Dodgers made their way to the NLCS after beating the Houston Astros three games to two in the NLDS.
This was also only the third NLCS that did not feature either the Phillies or their cross-state rival Pittsburgh Pirates, the other two being 1973 and 1969. In both of those years the Phillies rival New York Mets won the NL East and the pennant, beating the Baltimore Orioles in the '69 World Series and losing to the Oakland A's in '73.
Read more about this topic: 1981 National League Championship Series
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