Nationals 8, Padres 5: Returning home after a middling road trip punctuated with a loss to a walk-off grand slam by the Reds, the Nationals needed to show their fans some catharsis. And who better to deliver it than the team’s new marquee attraction? Bryce Harper, just days since his first big-league temper tantrum caused him to need 10 stitches over his left eye, belted his first big-league home run last night in a thunderbolt of a shot that landed more than a dozen feet past the 402-foot flight the center field wall. After racing around the bases, Harper would have been content to settle back in the dugout, but his more veteran teammates, sensing the moment, sent him back up for a curtain call before the crowd of 19,434. “I think we all knew it was a special moment,” Chad Tracy told the Post after the game.

Though Harper’s home run put the Nationals up 4-1, the Padres clawed back. And despite the celebratory atmosphere provided by the blast, the Nationals lost another catcher last night when Sandy Leon, playing his first major-league game, took a sprained ankle when San Diego’s Chase Headley barreled into home plate. Leon was sent to the 60-day disabled list and Jesus Flores lost his night off.