Phillies’ Aaron Altherr hits inside-the-park grand slam

Acquired in a trade from the Phillies in late July, Papelbon was ejected on Wednesday when he hit 3B Manny Machado of the Baltimore Orioles in the ninth inning after Machado hit a go-ahead homer in the seventh off RHP Max Scherzer.

UP NEXT: RHP Aaron Harang (6-15, 4.93) and the Philadelphia Phillies face LHP Gio Gonzalez (11-8, 3.94) and the Washington Nationals at 1:35 p.m.in D.C.

Saturday evening was a bittersweet affair for the Washington Nationals.

Ranking 28th in home runs, Philadelphia has hit 119 this season.

He was lifted for a pinch hitter after throwing only 67 pitches in five scoreless innings, with six hits, five strikeouts and no walks.

Washington Nationals starting pitcher Jordan Zimmermann watches…

“He’s getting better and better every time”, Nationals shortstop Ian Desmond said. After wasting plenty of offensive opportunities, they scored only one run of their own, and the game proceeded to extra innings before Bryce Harper came up with the walk-off hit in what ended up being a meaningless 2-1 win in the 12th inning.

While the Phillies-Nationals game was in the top of the 11th, the Mets finished beating the Cincinnati Reds 10-2. The left-hander gave up four runs and six hits in 4 2-3 innings after going 2-0 with a 1.47 ERA in his previous three starts.

The Nationals lost their fourth straight and fell to the brink of elimination from playoff contention.

“I want to go one more”, said Nola, who, in his first professional season, has logged 187 innings between double, triple A, and the major leagues.

“I don’t know. It was a good day, I guess”, Altherr said with a smile.

The Phillies are 28-62 in their last 90 road games and 5-14 in Harangs last 19 starts.

We haven’t seen anything like this since 1999.

Zimmermann did actually receive an ovation on his way from the bullpen to the dugout before the start even began, and it was something he acknowledged he heard and appreciated.

“It was awesome”, he said. He lowered his ERA to 3.63 after it had been above 6.00 earlier in the year.

So when was the last inside-the-park grand slam? He allowed seven hits and two run in seven innings in his last start, at Miami on September 22. Freddy Galvis lined to center, but Aaron Altherr laced a sinking liner to short center that Michael Taylor laid out for – and missed cleanly.

“I saw that he thought he had a chance and I’m expecting him to make a spectacular play and it gets past him, goes to the wall, and that’s the way baseball is”, Zimmermann said.