LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – OCTOBER 09: Max Muncy #13 of the Los Angeles Dodgers celebrates his two run home run. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES – The Washington Nationals and Los Angeles Dodgers played an extra-inning thriller Wednesday night, in a win-or-go-home Game 5 of the National League Division Series.
The Dodgers got to Nationals pitcher Stephen Strasburg early with a double by Joc Pederson, followed by a two-run home run by Max Muncy to give Los Angeles a 2-0 lead int he bottom of the first.
The Dodgers found success in the second inning as well, with a homer by Enrique Hernandez that made it 3-0 Los Angeles.
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – OCTOBER 09: Juan Soto #22 of the Washington Nationals celebrates after his solo home run to tie the game 3-3. (Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images)
It wasn’t until the sixth inning that the Nationals got to Dodgers starting pitcher Walker Buehler. After Anthony Rendon doubled, Juan Soto drove him home with a single that broke Buehler’s scoreless postseason innings streak at 21 2/3 and decreases Washington’s deficit to two runs.
Up 3-1, the Dodgers brought in pitcher Klayton Kershaw in the seventh inning, who has a reputation for struggling in the postseason, and he closed out the inning before heading back out to pitch in the eighth.
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – OCTOBER 09: Howie Kendrick #47 of the Washington Nationals hits a grand slam in the tenth inning of game five. (Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images)
Rendon and Soto started off the eight inning with back-to-back homers off of Kershaw to tie the game at 3.
Neither team could put runs on the board in the ninth, and the game went into extra innings, and the Nationals would quickly turn their three unanswered runs into seven.
Howie Kendrick stepped up to the plate with one out and bases loaded, then delivered the dagger with a grand slam that put Washington up 7-3.
Nationals pitcher Sean Doolittle closed out a scoreless bottom of the tenth and Washington advances to the National League Championship series against the St. Louis Cardinals.
