Rest could help A’s Davis regain power

SEATTLE — Khris Davis isn’t quite right, which one might easily deduce from a look at the numbers: He hasn’t homered since June 18 and he’s hit just six since April 14.

The AllStar break, which begins Monday, could be a good thing for the A’s and their designated hitter because Davis told The Chronicle on Saturday before the team’s 63 loss to the Mariners that the major issue for him is health: He had just started to recover from a side injury he incurred running into a wall making a great catch at Pittsburgh on May 5 when he was hit on the left hand by a pitch by Luis Garcia of the Angels on June 27.

“My hand could use the break,” Davis said. “I still feel that 96 mph off the hand. I’m just trying to do what I can.”

He still has noticeable swelling on the side of the hand and it affects his swing.

“It’s just not as strong as it should be,” he said. “I’ve been choking up a little bit, and that’s been helping a little, but not a lot of power guys choke up.”

There has been speculation that Davis has been pressing a little since signing a contract extension April 18 or that his power dip has caused him to try to do too much, but Davis said Saturday that his mindset hasn’t changed.

“I pretty much take the same mentality every AB,” he said. “I just try to put a good swing on it every time. I just haven’t been healthy. So that’s been on my mind a lot.”

Though he’s not hitting balls out at his usual clip, Davis is finding ways to contribute. In the first game at Seattle, he factored in two rallies with a hit, a walk and two runs, and Saturday he walked to load the bases, setting up Ramón Laureano’s sacrifice fly. He was 0for3 on the night and is 2for18 overall since he was struck on the hand.

“I think he’s very aware of what he can give you on a particular day,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said. “If it’s not a homer, it’s maybe a walk, or with a guy in scoring position, shoot a ball the other way against the shift. Even though he’s gone through some periods he hasn’t been 100 percent, he’s found subtle ways to contribute.”

Davis has led the majors in homers since the start of the 2016 season with 149, but by the break last year he had 21 homers in 87 games; in 2017, he had 24 in 87 games; and in 2016, when he got off to a slow start, he had 19 in 81 games.

He has 16 through Saturday, putting the reigning majorleague home run champ 15 behind majorleague leader Christian Yelich. And Davis, the eternal .247 hitter, is currently at .240.

“I was hot to start, and cold to finish,” Davis said of his first half. “The side was a factor, the hand is a factor. I can’t really control those things. Hopefully, in the second half, I’ll be much healthier.”

The A’s loss Saturday was a matter of just two pitches by starter Chris Bassitt — two tworun homers, one by Daniel Vogelbach and the other by Kyle Seager, both in the fourth inning — and then an off night by reliever WeiChung Wang. The lefthander, who earned his first bigleague win Thursday, walked Vogelbach to load the bases in the fifth, walked Omar Narvaez to send in one run and gave up a sacrifice fly by Seager.

All six runs were charged to Bassitt, who hadn’t allowed more than three earned runs in a start since April 27.

Laureano’s sacrifice fly drove in Oakland’s first run, in the first, and Matt Olson clocked a solo homer off Marco Gonzales in the third, but the A’s got nothing else until the ninth, when Laureano hit a solo shot off Roenis Elias.

Susan Slusser is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sslusser@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @susanslusser