Last night's hero heads for home. (Photo: Associated Press)

About thirty minutes after his majestic home run into the second deck of the right field seats gave the Nationals a dramatic 2-1 walk-off win over Philadelphia in a game as enthralling and exhilarating as the previous night's was dank and depressing, Adam Dunn emerged from the shower and walked toward his locker to meet the media.

In one of those serendipitous moments that can make this job so much fun, he happened to walk past one of the clubhouse TVs. It was tuned to MLB Network, which at that precise moment was relaying the report that Dunn was not likely to be resigned by the Nationals because the team considered him, as the anchorman put it, "a liability at first base."

"Really?" Dunn said jokingly in response to the report. The subtext (to me, anyway) was clear: Why would you worry about my defense if you saw where that ball landed?

Dunn made his point even clearer when he was asked about an almost-great play he made in the top of the fourth inning, when a line drive by Domonic Brown tipped off the top of his glove and rolled safely away. The Phillies loaded the bases on the play with only one out, but Jason Marquis managed to get out of the jam with the score tied at one. Dunn was asked about the muted reaction from the crowd on the play.

"[The fans have] been great," Dunn said. "They have every opportunity to boo us out of the stadium. They just come to watch baseball and to root on their home team. That's hard to find nowadays. It's not like they're waiting for you to make a mistake, like other places I've been." It's very hard not to take that as a reference to Dunn's former employers, the Cincinnati Reds, where even the team's Hall-of-Fame radio broadcaster put him under the gun.

Dunn will have at least one more home game as a member of the Nationals (it's tonight at 7:05 against the Phillies again). When he was asked about that possibility yesterday, Dunn, understandably, became exasperated.

"I'm not going to go in tomorrow going, 'This is my last home game ever,' and cry and hand out Adam Dunn baseball cards," he said. "I'm going to go into tomorrow like we have a chance to win the series against the National League East division champs.

"If you guys don't realize how sick and tired I am of talking about it, you probably wouldn't ask me every day," Dunn added. "Again, I wish it would have been over a long time ago. It's not, and it's not the worst thing that's ever happened to me. My job's to play, and my agent's job is to worry about the rest.

"I don't know what y'all want me to say. I don't know what's going to happen. If I did, I would tell you."

Dunn may not know what will happen, and General Manager Mike Rizzo won't talk about the negotiations (flatly denying a request from a reporter to do so before yesterday's game). But his teammates and the fans have made themselves clear. The "Sign Adam Dunn" brigade, a group conveniently located in the 300 level right underneath the press box, was out in full force again last night (as they no doubt will be tonight), and they kept up constant barrage of cheers not only when their hero was at the plate, but also when he was handling chances in the field.

"That's cool. It's good for the fans to voice their opinion," reliever Drew Storen said when told of the fan support for Dunn. "Especially when I like the opinions they're voicing."

"We want him back. He's a positive force in the clubhouse," last night's starter Jason Marquis said. "But, at the same time, you've got to focus on what you have."

"He's a guy who has fun every day," Storen said when asked what made Dunn such a good clubhouse guy. "He enjoys the game. He's not a guy who gets down."

I made my thoughts on Dunn clear prior to yesterday's game (proof that sometimes the sportswriting gods do smile upon you), as have some of the great and the good in this city. The bottom line is, a clubhouse without Adam Dunn is likely to result in fewer scenes of jubilation (and fewer wins) like the ones we saw last night. And it might make 2011 at Nationals Park a very sad and lonely time indeed.