Word from the Las Vegas Sun and the Las Vegas Review Journal is that Jayson Werth has already been called up by the Dodgers from his rehab assignment and will take Edwin Jackson's roster spot. Jackson will next pitch Monday in Tacoma.

I can't say I'm knocked out by the numbers in Hideo Nomo's rehab outing Thursday: five innings, three runs, five hits, three walks, two strikeouts, 30 balls and 37 strikes. The best sign - other than Nomo saying he felt good - is that he only needed 45 pitches to get through the final four innings. Nomo is to return to the Dodgers for his next start, probably Tuesday in Toronto.

Mark Johnson, who relieved Nomo, pitched four shutout innings for a save. Luis Garcia hit his 16th home run for the 51s, but before you get all excited and think he's more than a Larry Barnes type, I'd note that he has walked only nine times against 193 at-bats.

Joe Thurston batted eighth and was the only position player to go hitless.

There's a melancholy article by Steven Serafini in the Sonoma Index-Tribune on former Las Vegas reliever Doug Nickle, who recently retired - for now - from a journeyman career that he said took him to seven organizations in 2002 alone.

... last year - after his mother passed away after a long, brave battle with cancer - Nickle started wanting to make changes, because he said baseball ties you down and can consume your life with constant traveling and not a lot of days off.

"Right now, I can't even watch baseball - I know or have played against a lot of the players and after only two weeks from being on the mound, it's just tough to watch. I know I have a lot of support for whatever I do - and I'll always do what it takes to succeed. But I am going to stay in top shape and see how I feel after the summer. What I do know is that if I do happen to get back into baseball, it would have to be with one of the local franchises - the San Francisco Giants or the Oakland A's - who also have their triple-A teams in Fresno and Sacramento."