Dodgers will open playoffs on the road

That playoff picture is clearing in small increments, but it is clearing.

After Friday the Dodgers know one new thing for certain: They will open the 2013 playoffs on the road.

Still to be determined is where – either Atlanta or St. Louis – but the Dodgers do know their first two playoff home games will be Game 3 on Sunday, Oct. 6, and Game 4 on Monday, Oct. 7, assuming there is no sweep in the best-of-five series.

The Dodgers will open on the road in Game 1 on Thursday, with Game 2 on Friday.

“We don’t care who we play and we don’t care where it is,” Manager Don Mattingly said before the Dodgers’ game against Colorado.

Mattingly said the team’s confidence on the road was buoyed by their mid-summer run, when they won 15 consecutive road games.

“I don’t think any of our guys is really afraid of it,” he said. “What we did on that little stretch on the road gave these guys a lot of confidence.

“And honestly, it still about the pitching. You throw Kersh (Clayton Kershaw) and (Zack) Greinke out there, you pretty much like your chances.”