How Harper helped Heisey hit his first career walk-off homer

He had done it at Triple-A late last summer. And he had done it in Viera, Fla., earlier this spring. So maybe it was only a matter of time before Chris Heisey hit his first career walk-off homer in a major league game.

"I'm kind of knocking them all out here in a short period of time," he said with a laugh. "It was definitely nice to finally hit one in the big leagues."

Even nicer to do it in the bottom of the 16th inning of the craziest game just about everyone in a Nationals uniform could ever remember seeing in person.

Heisey's game-ending homer off Twins right-hander Michael Tonkin capped a frenetic, 5-hour, 56-minute marathon at Nationals Park and set off a celebration that resulted in the 31-year-old outfielder getting doused by not one, not two but three different Gatorade buckets. He was thrilled to be in the middle of it all, but before that was possible he needed to prepare for his big at-bat.

Heisey did so by taking a bit of advice from no less an expert on home runs than Bryce Harper. Some seven innings earlier, he and the 22-year-old reigning MVP were taking swings together in the batting cage that sits beneath the home dugout at Nationals Park.

"And I was asking him some questions about why he did certain drills," Heisey said. "He actually had me doing one of the drills that he's been doing for a little while now."

The drill: one-handed swings, using only the top hand, aimed to keep you swinging under every pitch.

"Not rocket science," Heisey said. "I just asked him: 'How do you do that?' I ended up doing it for a little. (Manager) Dusty (Baker) was actually on me in batting practice about staying on top of the ball with my top hand in batting practice. And actually right before that he said: 'Stay on top of this one.'"

Heisey did just that, and in the process he crushed Tonkin's 1-1 breaking ball over the visitors bullpen in left field, setting off the mob scene at the plate once he rounded the bases.

All of it thanks in part to some sage advice from the best hitter on the planet right now.

"He was trying to take some credit for it," Heisey said of Harper, "and I gladly will give it to him."