Could it be that the Nationals were stunned by what had occurred, taking a two-games-to-one lead in this series but failing to close it out? Last year, they were the preseason favorites to win the World Series and didn’t even make the playoffs. Now this?

What more could they have done to break through to the second round? They won 95 games in the regular season for the second-best record in the National League. Sure, they battled some late-season injuries, including one to the starting catcher Wilson Ramos. But this easily could have been their year.

But once again, it wasn’t.

“This is some of the greatest baseball I’ve ever been part of,” outfielder Jayson Werth said before flopping into a leather chair at one end of the clubhouse. Sitting there, he epitomized the Nationals’ postgame demeanor: face blank and baseball cap barely on his head and askew, silently staring at a blank television screen. In a locker nearby was a cap that said, “2016 Postseason,” a sad reminder that the Nationals, once more, deserved only a participation medal.

Before falling into his stupor, Werth said the feeling after the Game 5 loss was “too heavy” to describe. He also said it was a crazy series, and he was right. Craziest of all might have been when the Dodgers’ ace, Clayton Kershaw, came out of the bullpen on one day’s rest to close out the game in the bottom of the ninth with two runners on base and one out.

Game 5 was also crazy because the Nationals missed some obvious chances to win it.

There was an inexplicable moment in the sixth inning, when the Nationals were ahead, 1-0, with Werth on first with two outs. Ryan Zimmerman lined a hit down the left-field line and Werth blazed around the bases and past the third-base coach, Bob Henley, whose arm was windmilling as he sent Werth home.

Except that the ball got to the Dodgers catcher before Werth did. About two hours before Werth did. The fans, just about all 43,936 of them at Nationals Field, yelled, “No!” Henley finally said the word no, too, but hours later.