"Ryan Zimmerman walked from the Nationals Park on-deck circle Friday night and into the dream in every kid's backyard: Tie game, full count, two outs, bases loaded, bottom of the ninth inning. A long, wild game had spilled past midnight and led to this. Zimmerman stared out to the mound at Philadelphia Phillies closer Ryan Madson.

"The pressure's on him, man," Zimmerman said. "It's not on me."

Zimmerman had stepped into a fantasy and responded with nonchalance, the way he treats most every moment on a baseball diamond. He completed the Washington Nationals' stunning, 8-4 victory with a two-out, full-count grand slam to left field, capping the rally Jayson Werth started with a memorable, 11-pitch at-bat against his former team, whom the Nationals have now beaten four times in five meetings.

The eighth walk-off home run of Zimmerman's career lifted the Nationals to third place in the National League East, and it validated his place as a hitter who pairs poise and power like few others. Zimmerman has the more game-ending homers than any other major leaguer since he made his debut in September 2005.

"He's one of those great players who's totally in control in tough situations," Manager Davey Johnson said. "He's very calm. The rest of us get a little excited, but he doesn't."

Once he crossed the home plate, his Nationals teammates mobbed him. As he conducted a television interview in front of their dugout, Danny Espinosa smeared a whipped cream pie in Zimmerman's face, and Michael Morse and Werth dumped a Gatorade bucket over his head."