Kendrick’s grand slam ends L.A.’s season

LOS A NGELES» Howie Kendrick’s grand slam in the top of the 10th inning provided the winning runs Wednesday night as the Washington Nationals won the deciding Game 5 of their National League division series 7-3 against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The Dodgers grabbed a 3-0 lead after two innings against Nationals stalwart Stephen Strasburg, and L.A. starter Walker Buehler appeared almost invincible.

But Juan Soto’s RBI single in the sixth inning got Washington on the scoreboard.

Los Angeles went into the eighth inning still leading 3-1, when Dodgers left-handed star Clayton Kershaw, who came in as a reliever, blew that two-run lead by allowing solo home runs to Anthony Rendon and Soto on consecutive pitches.

Los Angeles built a 3-0 lead against Strasburg on Max Muncy’s two-run homer in the first and Kiké Hernández’s solo shot in the second.

Soto began Washington’s comeback with his RBI single in the sixth. Kershaw, a three-time NL Cy Young Award winner with a spotty history in October, entered with two on and two outs in the seventh and struck out Adam Eaton.

The Nationals play the St. Louis Cardinals in the NL Championship Series starting Friday. St. Louis routed Atlanta 13-1 in Game 5 of that series earlier Wednesday.

Joe Kelly took the mound for the Dodgers during the ninth inning, and came out again for the fateful 10th.

Kelly walked Adam Eaton, before Anthony Rendon hit a ground-rule double to deep left, moving Eaton to third base.

Then Kelly intentionally walked Soto to load the bases with no outs.

Kendrick then delivered a 410foot home run to center field to score four runs.

The Dodgers went 106-56 during the regular season for the second-best record in baseball behind the Houston Astros but suffered another in a series of postseason disappointments.

It is Washington’s first trip to the NLCS as the Nationals, and the second in franchise history: The Montreal Expos reached the 1981 NLCS — coincidentally against the Dodgers, who won that best-of-five series in five games.

The Dodgers lost last year’s World Series to the Boston Red Sox in five games and the 2017 World Series to the Astros in seven games.

They now have been to the last seven postseasons without winning it all.