Much ado about, well, not exactly nothing, but...

The big story from yesterday's game was not the pasting put on the Nats and Jerome Williams by the Marlins, but Manny Acta's decision to pull Ryan Church in the second inning when Church didn't run hard enough to first base on a routine ground out. There is no argument that Church could have beat out the throw; rather, Acta's complaint, which everyone, including us, seems to regard as legitimate, was that Church was loafing it.

From the Post, here's what happened next:

"So it was Acta's turn to deliver a message. By the time Church got back to the dugout, Acta was telling outfielder Chris Snelling -- who had been given the day off -- to get ready. In the bottom of the second, Snelling took over in left, Robert Fick moved from left to right, Austin Kearns moved from right to center, and Church remained on the bench."

Message sent, message received: Church says that Acta was right, and he was wrong. I promise, Church says, it won't happen again.

Now that we know that Acta is running a tight ship and is willing to disclipline a player who arguably has been the team's best hitter so far this season, we can all be happy knowing that the ship has been righted and the team is headed upward to even more success. Right?

Wait a minute... No, no, that's not right! The Nats were losing 12-2 going into the ninth, and, even though they made up four runs in the ninth on Ryan Zimmerman's grand slam (and first homer of the year), which you can see here, the box score and the standings tell an ugly tale.

In all this feel good support for a disciplinarian, we were thinking Acta's outburst might actually change something! You know, manager delivers a great speech, rallies the team, and the team turns it around like the New York Knights.

Unfortunately, that kind of thing happens only in the movies. We know that Acta is going to demand a lot of his players, which is important. But Acta can yell and scream as much as he wants and that isn't going to change one simple, depressing fact: this team is bad, and it's going to be bad for some time.

On the other hand, Acta's takedown of Church and his waltzing to first base proves one thing: we know now that Acta can deliver the lollygagging speech from Bull Durham:

Coach: You guys... you lollygag the ball around the infield. You lollygag your way down to first. You lollygag in and out of the dugout. Do you know what that makes you? Larry?
Larry: Lollgaggers!
Coach: Lollygaggers