Watch Jonathan Papelbon confront Bryce Harper in Nationals dugout spat

Alec Brzezinski

•
Watch Jonathan Papelbon confront Bryce Harper in Nationals dugout spat image

Nationals closer Jonathan Papelbon took umbrage with Bryce Harper's perceived lack of effort Sunday and let the slugger know about it when he returned to the dugout.

MORE: 15 times Jonathan Papelbon was the worst

Harper had just completed an 0-for-4 game, and it appears Papelbon had a problem with his body language. Papelbon returned to pitch in the ninth inning after the spat, but Harper was nowhere to be found, replaced in right field by Tyler Moore.

Washington has already been eliminated from the postseason and came into Sunday's game having lost four of their last five contests.

UPDATE: Harper commented after the game:

Matt Williams' reaction:

From SN contributor Todd Radom:

Papelbon later apologized and said he and Harper have put the incident behind them.

"First of all, let me say, I'm in the wrong there," Papelbon said, via MLB.com. "I've got to leave that up to our manager.

"I've talked to Bryce and told him how we feel and we're on the same page now, which is good. Squash this and [play] tomorrow's game. You know, I grew up with brothers, he grew up with brothers. I view him as a brother of mine. Sometimes in this game there's a lot of testosterone and there's a lot of intensity that spills over, and I think that happened today. For me, I can't allow that to happen in the middle of a game. You handle that after the games or allow the manager to handle that. In that light of it, I'm wrong."

Teammate Ian Desmond said the dugout drama is "a non-story."

"That stuff just happens," Desmond told MLB.com. "It's been an emotional couple of days. When the emotions boil over sometimes, it gets the best of us. No blood drawn. We are going to be all right."

Alec Brzezinski