ding for him -- or anyone else on an expiring contract -- would have a better chance at locking him up long-term before he hits the market. Teams with

LOS ANGELES -- Jayson Werth always wanted to hit a home run out of Dodger Stadium when he played two seasons in the venerable ballpark. Zack Greinke Jersey . His latest attempt came close with a 450-foot blast into the upper reaches of the left-field pavilion.Werths homer helped break open a one-run game in the ninth inning, moving the Washington Nationals within one victory of taking a postseason series for the first time with an 8-3 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Monday and a 2-1 lead in their best-of-five NL playoff.Heck, he even tied Babe Ruth with his 15th career postseason homer, good for 11th all-time.Ever since Dusty (Baker) moved me into the two-hole, I just felt like my job is to get on base for the animals behind me, said Werth, whose three hits tied a postseason career high.Four relievers combined for 4 2/3 shutout innings, putting the Nationals in position to wrap up the NL Division Series on Tuesday at Dodger Stadium.They work quick and theyre not afraid to go after anybody, said third baseman Anthony Rendon, who hit a two-run homer in a four-run third that chased Kenta Maeda.Werth added, It gives us confidence. I feel like the bullpen is going to hold up and that might not have been the case or the feeling in years past.NL East champions for the third time in five years, the Nats were unable to advance during their two previous trips to the postseason. They lost in the Division Series to St. Louis in 2012 and San Francisco in 2014.Im hoping this is our year, Werth said. Were battle-tested, were playoff-tested, and weve got a good group of guys. Weve been playing together a long time now, so I feel like this is our opportunity.Now 37 and with his 2008 World Series championship in Philadelphia long behind him, Werth senses time encroaching on him.Obviously, I cant play this game forever, he said. So I feel like this is our chance and I also feel like maybe this is my last chance to do it.The franchise has won one playoff series -- the Montreal Expos beat Philadelphia following the strike-shortened 1981 season before losing to the Dodgers in the NL Championship Series.The team moved from Montreal to Washington before the 2005 season.Playing 23 hours after the Nationals tied the series at home in a rain-postponed Game 2, the Dodgers again struggled against left-handed pitching, a problem throughout the season when they had a major league-worst .213 average against lefties.Four Washington lefty relievers stymied the Dodgers in the first two games. Facing lefty starter Gio Gonzalez in Game 3, they got three runs and four hits in 4 1/3 innings.The only Dodgers hitter with proven success against Gonzalez was catcher Carlos Ruiz, and he came through with a two-run, pinch-hit homer in the fifth that cut their deficit to 4-3.I made one bad pitch, but the bullpen was incredible, Gonzalez said. Its tough to go on the road and win in the playoffs. I went after them but I wish I had that one pitch back.After that, the Dodgers mustered just a pair of singles off a Nats bullpen that included lefties Sammy Solis and Oliver Perez, and didnt advance a runner past first base. Solis wound up with the win.Now, the four-time defending NL West champions are facing elimination.Were not afraid of this, rookie manager Dave Roberts said. Theres no quit in our guys. Well be ready tomorrow to win a baseball game, I can promise you that.It was still 4-3 when Werth homered on a 1-0 pitch from All-Star closer Kenley Jansen leading off the ninth.Ryan Zimmerman added a two-run double that bounced off right fielder Josh Reddicks glove at the wall -- the hit scored Daniel Murphy and Bryce Harper, who both walked.Jansen, the teams all-time saves leader, was yanked. Los Angeles used all seven of its relievers in the game.Maeda gave up four runs and five hits in three innings. The Japanese right-hander who won a team-leading 16 games is one of seven rookies on the Dodgers NLDS roster.Kenta was missing and getting behind, Roberts said. His fastball leaked back behind the plate and they made him pay. It was a good game until the ninth. Thats baseball.Maeda retired the side in the second, striking out two, before wilting in the third. He opened the inning by giving up four hits in five batters.Werths RBI double in the right-field corner tied the game 1-all. Harper hit an RBI single and Rendon followed with his two-run shot to the left-field pavilion for a 4-1 lead.Dodgers rookie Corey Seager continued his first-inning success in the series, hitting an RBI double off the wall for a 1-0 lead after homering in the first inning of Games 1 and 2.HIT `EM HERENationals SS Danny Espinosa got hit by a pitch from Maeda in the third inning, the third time hes been hit, which is the most in NLDS history. He trails Shane Victorino, who was hit four times in the 2013 ALDS against Boston for most in a division series in major league history.UP NEXTDodgers rookie Julio Urias (5-2, 3.39 ERA) is scheduled to start Game 4, but the Dodgers could bring back Game 1 winner Clayton Kershaw on short rest with their season on the line. Urias made two starts against the Nationals this season. He allowed two runs and six hits in five innings of a no-decision at home on June 22. The left-hander allowed one run in four innings on July 21 at Washington. The Dodgers won both games.The Nationals have yet to announce their starter. Its possible RHP Joe Ross would start Game 4 and Game 1 loser Max Scherzer would take the mound if Game 5 is necessary.The game will start at 5:05 p.m. EDT. The teams had to wait until San Franciscos 13-inning win over the Cubs ended just before 3 a.m. EDT to find out when first pitch would be -- Los Angeles and Washington would have begun at 8:08 p.m. EDT if Chicago had won. Brad Peacock Jersey . The Masters champion and winner of last weeks Australian PGA has a three-round total of 14-under 199 at Royal Melbourne. "Im in a really good position for tomorrow," Scott said. Brad Peacock Astros Jersey . The lawyers filed a 33-page amended complaint Tuesday in federal court in Manhattan, expanding on the suit originally filed Oct. 3 in New York Supreme Court. Arbitrator Fredric Horowitz last week refused to compel Selig to testify in the grievance, and Rodriguez then walked out of the hearing without testifying. https://www.cheapastros.com/143o-jose-cr...sey-astros.html . The Vikings announced Thursday that Priefer will be one of seven holdovers from the previous staff, along with offensive line coach Jeff Davidson, wide receivers coach George Stewart and others. Norv Turner will mark his 30th year of coaching in the NFL as the offensive co-ordinator, as widely reported for weeks, and George Edwards will be the defensive co-ordinator. The Jazz have crossed the line from curious to frustrated in imagining what their injury-riddled team might do if it could finally get healthy. They are sick of hearing how they are on the precipice -- how they are one of just four teams that rank in the top 10 in both points scored and allowed per possession, how all the numbers underlying their ho-hum record hint at the great team lurking beneath.Im not curious anymore, Rudy Gobert told ESPN.com last week. Im sure we can be a top team. Top four in the NBA. I feel like we could beat everybody. Why not?The coaches obsess with the next game, but even they cant help wondering. Its all when and if right now, Quin Snyder, the teams head coach, told ESPN.com. When this, and if that.This is not just a thought exercise. There are deadlines approaching, and hard choices for a small-market franchise that will have a tough time paying all five of its best players: Gobert, Derrick Favors, Gordon Hayward, George Hill, and Rodney Hood. The Jazz face an urgent need for information about how those players fit.We still need to go through a process that we had hoped would be done by now, Snyder now. Derrick and Rudy would be the most obvious example.Ah, Derrick and Rudy. The two bouncy behemoths have played 1,886 minutes together over the two-plus years since the Jazz excised Enes Kanter and stumbled upon a monster-movie defense that redefined the direction of the franchise. The results have been mostly good, even on offense, where the two can clutter the same real estate -- and block driving lanes for their teammates.With Favors eligible for a big-money extension now, six weeks after Gobert got his, the Jazz wish they had double that minutes sample to investigate. They really wish some of those minutes had come in the playoffs, so they would know whether those double-big lineups could squeeze out points against elite defenses primed for them.The answer to whether Derrick and Rudy can play together is unequivocally yes, Snyder said. The bigger question is in what situations, and how best to maximize every player. On some level, you dont know. We might find challenges that are hidden to us now.Snyder arrived in Utah with visions of a fast-breaking, Euro-style offense heavy on shooting. He adapted when he realized Utah might be able to build the leagues stingiest defense around Gobert and Favors.He slowed down the tempo, slotted Gobert and Favors at the elbows, and involved them as passers and screeners. If you want your bigs to defend their asses off, youd better let them feel the ball on the other end.For the second year in a row, the Jazz are jostling for dead last in pace. They jog it up, take their positions, and fly through complex sequences of cuts and screens until something cracks. I used to say, Gosh, we are playing slow -- am I bad at my job? Snyder recalled, laughing. But we just dont have a team that is going to be quite as good playing fast.It requires a fine balance: Work the offense, but not so long that you run up against the shot clock. You always want to get up shots in the segments of the shot clock where you can be efficient, Snyder said. Teams that have more shooting are probably going to shoot faster, because they can find good shots early. We just kind of gravitated toward this style.Teams that have more shooting. The Jazz can be a good team playing the Gobert-Favors combo 25 or 30 minutes per game. They just dont know if they can be a great one, and if they cant -- if they have to stagger them more -- whether it makes sense to pay both of them near-max contracts. Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph navigated tight quarters with one-on-one post-up brutality and brainy interior passing. The Favors-Gobert combination cant sniff Gasolian playmaking, and only Favors has shown glimpses of a threatening post game.Favors and Gobert are more mobile than most traditional bigs, but its unclear if they can chase the leagues deadliest small-ball groups. How good are we defending the perimeter against a smaller team? Snyder asked. How does that look?Meanwhile, people with the team rave about the extra spacing and playmaking Boris Diaw and Joe Johnson bring at power forward (the latter in limited minutes). Hayward has more space to cut, and Gobert has mastered quick duck-ins timed for a Diaw rifle pass:Trey Lyles is the blurry outline of a power forward who can shoot 3s and make plays off the bounce -- a clean fit who could clear the lane for either Favors or Gobert.Decision-making timetables in the NBA dont wait for blurry outlines to crystallize. The Jazz have about $13 million in cap room they can use now to give Favors or Hill a raise, and a long-term extension based off that higher salary. They cannot extend both.Favors is five years younger than Hill; an extension would synch perfectly with his prime. Hill plays a position of greater need, especially after Dante Exum missed a year of development -- another lost chance to gather information -- recovering from an ACL tear. Exum is plainly unready to lead a functional offense, and its unclear when (or if) he wont be.Hovering over all this is perhaps the most nervous free agency case in Jazz history. Hayward is six months from the open market, right as the league and union ready a new collective bargaining deal. The new CBA should help Utah; it will likely widen the advantage incumbent teams get, in money and years, re-signing their own guys. (Sorry, Thunder.)Hayward has been waiting longer than anyone to see whether this version of the Jazz can win. Its been like this, with the injuries, for the past couple of years, he told ESPN.com. Its frustrating.Extending Hill now is the best hedge against Hayward leaving. Losing both would eviscerate Utahs perimeter rotation; it is Utahs doomsday scenario. But Hill may wait out Haywards decision; the two are close, with shared Indiana roots and Indy-based trainers. Even so, Hill would at least listen if the Jazz approached with an offer today.I was never one who wanted to move from team to team, Hill told ESPN.com. If the opportunity to stay is there, Id love to take it.Winning would make the best sales pitch for both, so Utah cannot make any future-for-present moves -- including something with Favors -- that set back this years team. And they need Favors in reserve in case Hayward or Hill bolts.Utah wants to get healthy and show Hayward this nucleus can do damage in the postseason. It comes down to where I can compete for a title, he said. Where I live -- that doesnt affect me. The limelight doesnt matter to me. I just want to make a run at it.If he keeps playing like this, damn near the whole league will make a run at him in July.The intervention for Gordon Hayward happened inside a Chevy rental in Las Vegas two summers ago, after a Team USA mini-camp practice. Jason Smeathers and Rob Blackwell, Haywards longtime trainers from Indianapolis, watched Hayward sulk through the session. As Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry, and LeBron James talked trash and traded secrets, Hayward dribbled alone. Smeathers stopped the car and asked Hayward: Do you even want to be here?They asked Hayward why he didnt talk to any of the worlds best players, or pick their brains. They wouldnt talk to me, Hayward demurred, according to his trainers. They had seen this before. Hayward sometimes wore Durants signature shoes, but would never approach Durant after games againsst the Thunder. Don Wilson Astros Jersey. Haywards friends had to tell him: Youre a star, too. You are their peer.It took a while for Hayward to internalize the message, but last summer, he felt ready. He stayed in Salt Lake City to be close to his newborn daughter, and to work each day with Johnnie Bryant, a Utah assistant. (The Jazz include incentives in many contracts that allow for bonuses if players stick around in the summer, sources say. Goberts massive new extension includes some.)Hayward ripped apart his workout routine and started from scratch. He tried boxing to help his footwork and balance. He practiced spinning in a complete circle on one leg, tapping the floor, and spinning back the other way. Hed stand on one leg, move the other one in and out, and try not to fall over. He hit the weight room harder.He ran through sets without a ball, and started watching film of his workouts. I wanted to see: Am I doing it right every single time? Hayward said. I think there is a still a big leap for me, and I want to get that out of myself. I couldnt do the same stuff Ive been doing every summer. I wanted to be uncomfortable.He quietly reached out to Kobe Bryant to see if the retired superstar might tutor him on the art of the midrange. He ended up spending a week with Bryant in Newport Beach. Hes one of the best to ever do it, Hayward said, and it was one of my best weeks ever.It paid off. Hayward is having a career season. Hes a legit All-Star candidate who does everything well. He powers through contact, and shoots his mid-rangers with a little less lean. His core is so solid, he widened his stance at the foul line to improve his balance; Hayward is shooting a career-best 89 percent from the stripe.Almost everyone with max-level cap room will at least call Haywards agent. His beloved college coach works in Boston. The Clippers explored a sign-and-trade for Hayward in the summer of 2014, when he was a restricted free agent, per several league sources; Doc Rivers loves him. The Clips have no easy path to max space, but as the Warriors showed in maneuvering for Andre Iguodala, any team that needs mega-space can get there in a pinch.Hayward is emblematic of Utahs perceived place in the NBA hierarchy: really good, but far short of being a No. 1 option on a championship team. Hes not quick enough to blow by some wing stoppers, and hes a league-average 3-point shooter -- encouraging given the difficulty of his attempts, but not scary enough to bend opposing defenses.He doesnt draw double-teams on the block, and the lack of such a threat can bog Utahs offense against tuned-in crunch-time defenses.So what? How many championship-level No. 1 options are there, really? Three? A half-dozen? What are you supposed to do if you dont get one? Tank over and over, until you win the lottery in the right season? Cross your fingers that the next generational superstar will be born nearby and want to play for his hometown team aside from the occasional stint at the beach?Utah is counting on the combustion effect of mixing enough really good players. Gobert has made his own leap to that level, with Hayward. The big man is the co-favorite for Defensive Player of the Year, and he is transformed on offense. Hes catching more cleanly on the pick-and-roll, and finishing around the basket with astonishing force.Gobert leads the league in field-goal percentage, and hes sniffing 70 percent at the line. Hes not worried about getting fouled any more, and when big men cross that Rubicon, they become much more confident cramming dunks.Opponents barely even try shooting around the basket when Gobert is on the floor, per NBA.com, and hes (literally) the biggest reason only 19 percent of opponent 3s come from the corners -- the third-lowest mark in the league. With Gobert enveloping the paint, Utahs help defenders can stick close to shooters dotting the arc.Both Gobert and Hayward could still improve. Hood could blossom into a borderline All-Star. Exum is only 21, and he can credibly guard multiple positions -- and even supply some emergency rim protection:They have extra first-round picks coming from Golden State (2017) and Oklahoma City (probably 2018), and when theyre not chasing point guards, the Jazz generally draft well. Those picks could morph into trade chips.Hell, they could even use the long-forgotten Alec Burks, out after ankle surgery. When healthy, he injects some north-south speed that can puncture defenses when the whir of cuts and screens gets Utah nowhere. The Jazz are hopeful Burks could be back in January, and that theyll have a chance to see their full team well before the trade deadline, sources say.With paydays for everyone else looming, Burks, making eight figures annually through 2018-19, has always seemed a likely salary-dump candidate. Utah just cant afford to keep everyone. Slough Burks, and Utah is still looking at a $140 million-plus payroll in 2018-19 if it retains Favors, Gobert, Hood, Hayward, and Hill -- not to mention Exum, up for an extension after this season. Even glitzy teams blanch at rocketing $20 million over the luxury tax.Utah may well do nothing for the time being. It can hoard that $13 million in case a trade pops up. Hill may rebuff extension offers pending Haywards choice. Utah wants to see how Favors knee recovers before lavishing him with an extension, and Favors might prefer to wait until his own free agency in 2018.If Utah extends anyone this season, the bet here is on Hill. Dennis Lindsay, the teams GM, drafted Hill in San Antonio, and Utah has no ready replacement for him. If both Hill and Hayward sign on long-term, Id expect the Jazz to gauge the trade market for Favors in the summer and lean on stretchier power forwards. (Theyd also have to identify a new backup center, since Favors effectively plays that role when healthy. Jeff Withey has been solid in Favors absence.)Thats not ideal timing, since Favors will be, barring an extension, on an expiring contract -- and tough to trade for good return.The new CBA could help Utah there, too. The league and union have discussed giving capped-out teams more financial flexibility in offering extensions, though its unclear if any such change will end up in the new deal. That would pump up Favors trade value, since any team trading for him -- or anyone else on an expiring contract -- would have a better chance at locking him up long-term before he hits the market. Teams with cap room (like Utah now) already have leeway in extending guys, and that should remain the case under the new CBA, sources have said.With or without Favors, this may not be a championship-level nucleus in a superstar-driven league. But it could be a damn good team for a long time, and sometimes funny things happen to teams who hang around the 50-win range. If enough players hit, the Jazz could turn into a version of the 2003-04 Pistons -- a huge, defense-first team with a bunch of (allegedly) second-tier stars who combined to form something greater.If you dont have a top-10 player, maybe having five top-30 guys will do the trick. Its certainly worth investigating, especially with players who believe so deeply in themselves. I think we can beat anybody, Gobert said. Defensively, we can be the best. We are not scared of anyone. ' ' '