WASHINGTON -- When third-base coach Bob Henley sent Jayson Werth home on a double down the left-field line, the Nationals seemed to be in control. Max Scherzer was dealing some of the finest stuff in the biggest start of his career, and Washington was nine outs from winning an NL Division Series.Werth was out by 30 feet at the plate , Scherzer lost the lead on his next pitch and the decisive Game 5 unraveled as the Nationals lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers 4-3 Thursday night, their third first-round exit in the past five years.Henley was heartbroken at his ill-advised decision, which cost the Nationals at least the chance at more runs in a game that came down to one.You live and die by those moments sometimes, Werth said. If (shortstop Corey) Seager doesnt make a good throw, the ball kicks away or something like that, I score. That was tough. It was a tough play.Players who have worn a shirt with Henleys picture and the phrase Send em short, send em tall, send em one, send em all were reluctant to pin the loss on a third-base coach when they went 1 for 10 with runners in scoring position and stranded 11. They credited Dodgers manager Dave Roberts for going to closer Kenley Jansen in the seventh for the longest outing of his major league career and for turning to ace Clayton Kershaw for a two-out save in the ninth , Kershaws first since the Gulf Coast League in 2009.But the game turned on left fielder Andrew Toles getting the ball to Seager, and the rookie making the throw home to catcher Yasmani Grandal. The air was sucked out of the sellout crowd of 43,936 that had made Nationals Park lively and loud for most of the evening.I think after the fact, hindsight, do I wish I could have it back? Well, yeah, sure, Henley said. Thats just human nature. But Ive tried to be aggressive all year. Its our style of play. Does it hurt? Sure, it hurts. Anytime it doesnt work out and you feel like it might have cost us, of course I think it hurts.Scherzer gave up a home run to Joc Pederson on his first pitch in the seventh and his 99th and last of the game. From that point manager Dusty Baker called on five relievers -- Mark Rzepczynski, Blake Treinen, Sammy Solis, Shawn Kelley and Oliver Perez -- to get three outs.They eventually did so, but not before Carlos Ruiz drove in a run with a pinch-hit single off Solis and Justin Turner got two more home with a triple off Kelley, who suffered a severe injury on his subsequent pitch. Four runs by the Dodgers was too deep a hole for the Nationals to climb out of, even with a two-run, pinch-hit home run by Chris Heisey in the bottom of that seventh inning, a 66-minute extravaganza.You knew something one in a million was going to happen tonight, Scherzer said. That was it. We werent able to overcome that seventh inning.As Werth described it, the wheels came off for a Nationals team that won 95 games and the NL East but is left to wonder how to come back from another gut punch of a playoff loss. In the aftermath of Game 5, the only consolation was that the Dodgers pulled out all the stops to win.Its the craziest game Ive ever been a part of, Scherzer said. We just didnt get it done. No ones a goat. No one made a crucial misplay. Everybody stepped up and did their game. We just didnt get that extra run.That extra run could have come in the sixth had Werth not been thrown out at the plate, making Henley as much of the goat as Rzepcyznski, who got the loss, or any of the other relievers who struggled in the seventh. Baker said Henleys decision wasnt what lost the game, and blamed the inability to get runners home.Baker had his bags packed for Chicago and will now go home as the Dodgers face the Cubs in the NL Championship Series.Im not ready for the season to end, Baker said. Right now, everybodys kind of numb. Everybodys probably thinking about what we all could have done to change the outcome of the game.Note: Kelley lost feeling in his fingers on his first pitch to Adrian Gonzalez in the seventh and immediately knew something was wrong. Baker said he was concerned about Kellys long-term health because of his history of Tommy John S(backslash)surgeries.Fake Vans Shoes .Y. - New Orleans forward Anthony Davis was chosen Friday to replace the injured Kobe Bryant in the NBA All-Star game that will be played in his home city. Fake Vans Outlet . - NASCAR announced a 33-race schedule for the 2014 Nationwide Series with virtually no changes from this years slate. http://www.fakevans.com/fake-vans-toy-story/ . Pence singled in the winning run with no outs in the ninth inning to give the Giants a 7-6 victory over the San Diego Padres on Sunday. Fake Vans SK8 . Once again Jordan Cieciwa (@FitCityJordan) and I (@LynchOnSports) go head to head in our picks. Last weekend at UFC Fight Night 32 my #TeamLynch got the best of #TeamJC by a score of 9-6. Let us know which side youre on for UFC 167 use the hashtag #TeamLynch or #TeamJC on Twitter. Cheap Fake Vans . Thats about all he can do right now, so hes trying not to think about when he might be able to play again for the Los Angeles Lakers.James Harrison said in an affidavit provided to the NFL that he has never violated the leagues policy on performance-enhancing drugs and also has never met the man who alleged to Al-Jazeera America that he supplied the Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker with an illegal substance.The affidavit, dated July 11, 2016, was included with a letter from Heather M. McPhee, the NFL Players Associations associate general counsel to Adolpho Birch, the NFLs senior vice president of labor policy. A copy of the letter was obtained by ESPN.The union included the affidavit, along with a transcript of the only references to Harrison in the Al-Jazeera report, to support its position that there is no need for Harrison to agree to an in-person interview with the NFL as the league lacks evidence to support such an interview.Harrison is the only one of the four active players named in the Al-Jazeera report to supply the league with a sworn affidavit. Green Bay Packers linebackers Clay Matthews, Julius Peppers and free-agent linebacker Mike Neal were also named in Al-Jazeera report. The NFLPA has previously resisted requests for in-person interviews with the NFL on their behalf as well.Charlie Sly -- the source for the Al-Jazeera report that implicated the four aforementioned players as well as retired quarterback Peyton Manning and athletes from other sports -- has since recanted his remarks. The NFLPA has argued that because of that, the players should not have to discuss the matter with the NFL. Birch has previously disputed the relevance of that argument.The Al-Jazeera America documentary The Dark Side aired last December. In the transcript, which was provided by the NFLPA with the letter, Sly tells an undercover reporter that he supplied Harrison with a substance named D2 or Delta-2. Harrison, however, says in the affidavit that to tthe best of my knowledge and recollection, I have never met the individual who is apparently named Charles Sly, whose remarks appeared in the report.dddddddddddd.Since he doesnt know Sly, Harrison says has not had email, text messaging or other communications with Charles Sly and has never been supplied with a substance called D-2 or Delta-2 that the person who appears to be named Charles Sly refers to in the Al Jazeera report.Harrison ends the affidavit by stating: I have never ingested the substance or product called Delta-2 and I have never violated the NFL Policy Performance Enhancing Substances.The NFLPA points out in the letter that Harrisons affidavit addresses each of the specific references to him in the supplied transcript.In the absence of the existence of any documented, credible evidence, this affidavit constitutes reasonable cooperation by this employee, McPhee writes.Notably, none of the letters previously sent by the union were on behalf of Manning, who is a former player and could decide to cooperate with the league investigation even as the union defends its current players from having to do so. The NFLPA has been in contact with Manning, whose cooperation could conceivably put the other four players in a difficult position from a public relations standpoint. Some people familiar with his thinking have previously told ESPN that they believe he will cooperate.This dispute between the NFL and its union came to a head last month when Harrison, who has a history of public arguments with the league over discipline matters, said commissioner Roger Goodell would have to go to Harrisons house if Goodell wanted to interview him.ESPNs Dan Graziano contributed to this report. ' ' '
