April 24 -- FEELING WERTH-LESS

MILWAUKEE -- Morning, all. Quick turnaround today, so I'll get right to it.

Nobody, not even Cole Hamels, took last night's loss harder than Jayson Werth. When the clubhouse opened to the media, Werth was still in full uniform, seated at his locker and staring into nowhere. And when we walked out of Charlie Manuel's office a few minutes later, Werth, still fully dressed, was watching video of his ninth-inning strikeout against Brewers fill-in closer Derrick Turnbow.

But it was a base running gaffe in the seventh inning that had him most despondent.

"I single-handedly probably gave the game away," Werth said. "On second. Top of the order up. My instincts have got to be better. It was a screw up. I take responsibility for this loss. It's my fault, for sure."

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Hindsight is always 20-20, so the second-guessers will say Manuel should've replaced Hamels before he gave up the decisive homer by Prince Fielder. I think Manuel did the right thing by sticking with his ace, who had retired 18 of the previous 22 batters, 10 by strikeout. Yeah, I know J.C. Romero's job is to get out left-handed hitters like Fielder. And I know Fielder already had homered once against Hamels. But to me, and apparently Manuel, Ryan Braun's leadoff double wasn't enough of a sign that Hamels was done. And if you're going to lose that game, wouldn't you rather do it with Hamels on the mound than anyone else?

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Talked to Brad Lidge before last night's game about his strong start. Lidge said it's pretty simple, really. He's sticking with his fastball and slider (his slider has been particularly nasty). Over the past two years, he has tinkered with other pitches in April, and they haven't worked. Last season, after fumbling the closer job in Houston, he scrapped a cut fastball and split-finger, went back to the fastball-slider combo, and pitched well for the rest of the year. This season, he said he was determined to use only the fastball-slider, and so far, it's working.
***

Geoff Jenkins showed his class when he took out a full-page ad in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel last November to thank the fans for 10 good years with the Brewers. Many of those fans showed their last night by giving Jenkins a standing ovation before his first at-bat. It was much different than last season, when they booed Wes Helms, another former Brewer. The difference: Helms left the Brewers of his own volition and signed a free-agent contract with Florida in 2006. The Brewers cut Jenkins loose and made him a free agent when they didn't pick up his $9 million option for 2008.

Fans, like everyone else, prefer to do the dumping instead of being dumped.

Back later with lineups and in-game updates.