"It might be easy to understand if Jason Bay took a seat on the end of the bench the last few days and kept to himself. It might be just as easy to believe he spent most of the game in the clubhouse breaking televisions and smashing his bat across chairs and anything in sight, then heading home to kick his dog afterward.

But in the dugout Thursday night in Milwaukee, he sat down next to Jason Pridie. It was a little while after Bay stood before a crowd of reporters and tried to explain what he had no answer for - his continuing struggles on the field and the improbable benching to catch his breath.

While his teammates got ready for the game, Bay went into the batting cage and swung until he was dizzy, hoping to recapture the feeling he once had, but now makes his spot at the plate seem like foreign land.

As Bay sat next to Pridie, who replaced him in the lineup, he talked. He offered tips, advice, whatever he could think of to help the 27-year-old rookie.

"Honestly, since coming up, he's been the guy that I've turned to to ask questions," Pridie said. "He's always right there, saying, 'Good job' or 'Try this.' He's been more than I could have imagined from a guy like that. I've heard nothing but great things."