No Church on Sunday, but errors galore.

What a sorry, sorry game this was. The "Bad News Nats" were in rare form in Miami today. They had no consistency in their 12-6 loss to the Marlins.

Starter Jerome Williams struggled like a man drowning out on the mound today. Out of 115 pitches, he threw only 3 more strikes than balls. Unbelievable. And he gave up nine runs on nine hits. Yikes.

The offense struggled, too. 7 hits, sure, but too little, too late. At least catcher Jesus Flores, got hit fist major league hit - he went 2 for three. He did well behind the plate, too, giving Brian Schneider a much-appreciated rest, I'm sure.

Ryan Report: The most intriguing question of the day was, why did Ryan Church get pulled from the game so early, after only one at-bat? The answer came from Manny Acta in his press conference: because Church didn't run a ball out. Gotta give Acta props for sticking to his guns. Church was obviously embarrassed, he knew what he did wrong, and he'll probably never allow that to happen again. It certainly wasn't intentional on his part, and I'm sure than Acta knows that, too, but the point had to be made. The good news is, in the 9th inning, Ryan Zimmerman got his first career Grand Slam, as well as his first home run of the season. Thanks to that G/S, the Nats avoided the ignominious distinction of having more errors (4) for the game than runs (2, up until that point). If memory serves, that's only the second Grand Slam in Nationals history, the other one coming from Brad Wilkerson late in the 2005 season*. Too bad this one didn't truly impact the game, but maybe it breaks Zimmerman out of his slump. I hope someone retrieved the ball for him, though, it seemed to land in a pretty empty area of the stadium.

Maybe a nice Monday off will recharge their batteries a bit and they can wail upon the Phillies on Tuesday in the City of Brotherly Love (motto: "We'll love you within an inch of your life.") We can only hope.

*EDIT: Some memory I have. Last season, Alphonso Soriano hit a Grand Slam for the Nationals in Milwaukee, on June 4th. I don't know how I managed to forget that one. According to the Washington Post, this breaks a streak of 123 games the team has gone without one, the longest streak in the majors.

*EDIT 2: Where would I be without my eagle-eyed readers to keep me honest? My main hustlin' man, Ryan Church belted a Grand Slam against Philly on April 18th of last year, too. José Vidro, Nick Johnson and Marlon Byrd all scored. I'm SO ashamed that I could forget something like that. Mea culpa, and apologies to Ryan for such neglect on my part.