Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP

Marlins starting pitcher Dontrelle Willis (12), and teammate Miguel Cabrera (24) celebrate after beating the Nationals 9-2 on Monday. Willis (1-0) allowed one earned run and seven hits in six innings.

updated 6:28 p.m. ET April 2, 2007

WASHINGTON - An empty champagne bottle sat near Florida Marlins manager Fredi Gonzalez after a half-dozen people helped him guzzle it.

And why not?

There was plenty to toast Monday: Gonzalez’s first game as a big league skipper, and a 9-2 victory over the Washington Nationals, thanks to Miguel Cabrera’s four RBIs, Hanley Ramirez’s four hits and four runs, and Dontrelle Willis’ six solid innings.

“It was nice, it really is, but we’ve still got 161 more,” said Gonzalez, 43, who was Atlanta’s third-base coach the past four seasons. “It was fun. It was great. It was everything I expected it to be.”

It’s safe to say he enjoyed his debut as a manager in the majors far more than Washington’s Manny Acta did.

“We’re tied for second, with the rest of the league who lost today. It’s just one game,” said Acta, who coached third base for the Mets in 2005-06. “Somebody has to win, somebody has to lose. I lost today.”

Not only is Acta 0-1, but his starter, John Patterson, didn’t make it out of the fourth inning, and two position players — a quarter of the starting lineup — left with injuries before the end of the fifth: shortstop Cristian Guzman (left hamstring) and center fielder Nook Logan (left foot).

“That,” Gonzalez said, “is freaky.”

Acta’s take: “It’s not frustrating, it’s just weird. We went the whole spring training and were pretty much healthy coming out of Florida, and then two guys go down.”

Gonzalez (Cuba) and Acta (Dominican Republic) were the first pair of managers born outside the United States to make their major league debuts in the same game, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

Yet while Gonzalez, who took over for NL Manager of the Year Joe Girardi, could enjoy most every moment — with his teen son, Alex, joining him in the dugout — Acta’s first game since replacing Frank Robinson went about as poorly as possible.

Slide show   Opening Day 2007 From fans to fanfare, see highlights from the opening day of the Major League Baseball season.

There were the two injuries, plus Patterson (0-1) left after allowing six runs over 3 2-3 innings. It was his first start since July; his 2006 was cut short by arm surgery.

“I didn’t have any life on my fastball,” the right-hander said. “It was just dead. I fought it. I kept trying to get the ball to jump.”

So Acta’s day could be summed up by a five-minute span during the fourth inning. First, he jogged to the deepest part of the park to check on Logan. Shortly after making the long trek back to the dugout, Acta turned around to lift Patterson when he allowed Cabrera’s two-run, upper-deck homer that made it 6-0.

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