Is Manny Acta on the clock?
The Nationals manager is a great baseball man. A nice guy, a good role model. But the Nats sank to 0-7 on Monday with another error-filled outing. The team may soon be forced to change skippers, if only for shock value.
Nobody agreed with the Wizards dismissing Eddie Jordan at 1-10, but the Nats are more attendance-prone this season. Fans started leaving in the sixth inning of the 9-8 loss to Philadelphia, and you wonder how many will return.
The Nats can’t punish general manager Jim Bowden anymore. He’s gone. Now the search for a scapegoat comes to Acta, who’s 132-198 in two-plus seasons. He was given little, but at some point you still have to win.
“I’m a blessed human being. I don’t think about that,” Acta said. “There are so many people losing their jobs every single day. I can’t control that and I don’t think about that type of stuff. … If in three years [team owners are] going to judge me over six, seven, eight games [this season] I don’t worry about that.”
It’s hard to muster energy for a winless team with a ragged defense that permitted three unearned runs. Second baseman Anderson Hernandez booted two balls and missed a third. The outfield played like the Kamikaze Kids with Lastings Milledge resembling Willie Mays — in his final year with the Mets. Even Milledge’s last-second catches on the wall could have come more easily with a direct run to the ball.
Washington starter Daniel Cabrera walked the Phillies eighth hitter for a run, then let pitcher Jamie Moyer knock in another on a sacrifice fly. Saul Rivera plunked two batters, then surrendered a 415-footer to Ryan Howard. Dumb and dumber.
Nobody expected a great team, but this is the fifth season in Washington. Improvement should be here already.
“We knew we were going with young starting pitching,” team president Stan Kasten said. “Young starting pitching has its ups and downs. I think we could call the first week a down.”
Opening Day is supposed to bring hope, but the crowd seldom responded to bugle calls while the presidents’ race hit a new low for lame. Even Obama blew off an afternoon away from the Oval Office to throw out the first pitch.
“We’ll come out of it,” Kasten said.
But with who as the manager?
Rick Snider has covered local sports since 1978. Read more at TheRickSniderReport.com or e-mail [email protected]
