Davis trying to stay positive
He’s hitting under .125 with no homers since All-Star break
CHICAGO — Orioles first baseman Chris Davis’ game to forget Friday night after a nearly monthlong slump at the plate meant his struggles could not be ignored for much longer.
Davis went 0-for-5 with two strikeouts and made errors on consecutive plays, leading manager Buck Showalter to drop him to sixth in the batting order for the first time this season.
Before Saturday night’s game against the Chicago White Sox, Davis opened up about what actually has been a season-long problem for the slugger the Orioles signed to a seven-year, $161 million contract in the offseason to make him the highestpaid player in club history.
“Yesterday is obviously not a game that I want to hold on to for very long,” Davis said. “I think I’m trying to look on the positive side of things. Obviously, I haven’t been swinging the bat the way I want, really, all year. I think it’s been just a grind to kind of get something going and roll with it. But there’s always a way that you can contribute, whether it’s having a 10-pitch at-bat, drawing a walk, making a guy work. And defensively, I have obviously been trying to do everything I can to help us win games.
“Yesterday with the two errors was very uncharacteristic, but I was able to bounce back late in the game and had a big play. You’re going to go through seasons like this. Unfortunately, you can’t have career years every year. You learn from it as much as you can, and you do everything you can to get out of it. I’m going to stay positive and do everything I can to help us win.”
Davis entered Saturday batting .125/.233/.141 with 27 strikeouts and nine walks in 64 at-bats since the All-Star break. He went 0-for-2 with two walks and two strikeouts Saturday. He has had streaks of great power, connecting for home runs in five straight games June 7-12 and hitting home runs in five of seven games from June 25 to July 2.
But his stretch of 19 games without a home run is his longest since the Orioles acquired him from the Texas Rangers in 2011.
Because of that, he moved below newly acquired outfielder Steve Pearce in Saturday’s lineup against left-hander Carlos Rodon, a change Davis took in stride.
“It just fit better today,” Showalter said. “He’ll be back up tomorrow. Every day, we look at it. It’s a little better fit. We have Steve Pearce now, too.”
Davis said: “Buck and I have been around each other long enough and understand each other well enough to know that it doesn’t matter where I hit. I’m not a big guy that’s going to go, ‘I have to hit three, I have to hit four, I have to hit five.’ I’ve hit in the two-hole. That’s something that I’ve established early in my career here, that I’m willing to do whatever it takes to help us win, whether it’s playing multiple positions, move around the batting order — whatever it takes. It is what it is. I want to continue to stay positive, and like I said, keep working.”
Davis and Showalter said plays like the eighth-inning pick Davis made that set off the bizarre inning-ending 3-5 double play in Friday’s game are an example of how he’s still helping the club.
“You try to have a long memory and know what he’s capable of over the course of the rest of our games,” Showalter said. “He’s been a big contributor in some form or fashion. Last night, if he doesn’t make that play late in that ballgame, who knows what could have happened? He’s still contributing, and we all know he’s capable of a lot more.” Alvarez remains in platoon: For the second time this week, designated hitter Pedro Alvarez was out of the lineup the day after he hit two home runs because an opponent had a left-handed starter on the mound.
Alvarez has been the team’s hottest hitter of late, with six home runs in his five games and five in three games before pinchhitting Saturday to give him 18 this season. But he started on the bench Saturday night with Mark Trumbo serving as designated hitter, Pearce in right field and Nolan Reimold in left.
“Why has he been hot?” Showalter said. “Because he’s facing right-handed pitching. We’ll keep him that way. I like having a nice weapon on the bench, too. It also makes us a lot better defensively, and I want to get Trumbo off his legs a little bit. We’ve been doing that all year and we’ve gotten a nice return for it. We’re also going to face, it looks like, five or six right-handed starters in a row.”
Alvarez entered Saturday batting .276 with 17 home runs against right-handed pitching. He had one home run and a .148 batting average against lefties. Around the horn: Left-hander T.J. McFarland’s rehabilitation appearance Tuesday, his first game action since going on the disabled list June 30 with a knee injury, will be in the rookie-level Gulf Coast League, Showalter said. McFarland could go back to Triple-A Norfolk after that . ... Catcher Yermin Mercedes was named the Low-A South Atlantic League Player of the Month after batting .375 with a 1.105 OPS in July. He was recently promoted to High-A Frederick, where first baseman Aderlin Rodriguez hit .375 with a 1.110 OPS and earned Carolina League Player of the Month honors.