Chris Davis on playing again at home, Tim Beckham on return to team

For the first time in two weeks, first baseman Chris Davis will play in front of the home fans at Camden Yards tonight when the Orioles host Seattle. After missing eight games to get a mental break and work on his swing, Davis returned over the weekend and had five RBIs in wins Friday and Saturday over the Atlanta Braves.

He's got a lot of catching up to do with his bat, but he had just 15 RBIs all year before the Atlanta series with six in April and nine in May.

"I think it was just that - the time off," he said this afternoon. "Having the chance to work on things and not go play a game that night. A lot of times, that is suffocating to say the least and that is what I was running into. I would get a feel or find something I thought would make it click in BP or in the cage and then go into a game and it didn't happen. And it's tough to turn that off and try to go compete when you are not feeling 100 percent. And another thing it allowed me to do was to just go out on the bench, kind of take a deep breath and just pick up my teammates. And see the effect it had on them. Like I said, I appreciate the time off, but I don't want any more."

Davis hopes now to finally give the home fans something to cheer him for.

"I feel like a completely different player and I hope that showed the last couple of games," he said. "I understand the frustration. I know exactly what I'm capable of and what I've done in the past, and the standard is high. I definitely understand the frustration, but at least for me I've got to move on and move forward. And try to find a way to still have an impact on this season.

"For me, it (the struggles) was exhausting. My solution to a lot of my problems in baseball has always been to work. I felt like as long as I was working, as long as I was trying, that I would figure it out. Really, this was the first time in my career that I kind of was at a point that I didn't know what else to do. I think that was really what the time off was all about. Buck (Showalter) and some of the people in the front office saw that I was just going to continue to go and go and go and thought maybe we need to try a little different approach. And I appreciate them giving me the chance to step away and gather myself and regroup."

On another topic, Davis was asked about the attendance being down this season at Oriole Park.

"It's frustrating. We always want to see the stands packed as players," he said. "That is part of the adrenaline rush that gets us going. But we understand that we have a role and responsibility to provide something that people want to see. If the seats are empty and we're winning, that is another issue. But that is not the case right now. I was fortunate to be traded here over halfway through the season in 2011 and really this is the first time that I guess - thinking back to last year, too - that we haven't won here. And I don't like it and no one here does. We have to find a way to change that and I think that's why the rest of the season is so important for us."

Meanwhile, Tim Beckham is back in the Orioles lineup tonight for the first time since April 23. He is batting eighth at third base. Beckham has been on the 60-day disabled list after core muscle surgery. When he left the club, Beckham was batting .179/.247/.262 in 23 games. He had just three hits in 23 at-bats on his rehab assignment in the minors with four games at Triple-A Norfolk and three for Double-A Bowie. But he got back on the field and got some needed reps in.

"It went well, man, and I'm excited to be back and excited to be back in the lineup," Beckham said. "The rehab went well. Getting my timing back at the plate, the last three or four games I started to really feel good and so now ready to get after it. I don't want to think about what was going on before the injuries. I'm here now, healthy and ready to play ball."

Showalter has said he feels Beckham had been dealing with this issue for years and Beckham said that is accurate.

"I do agree with that. It was something I battled for years," Beckham said. "But sometimes you have to play through injuries, man. If you can't play through injuries at this level, well, just put it like this - you've got to play through injuries sometimes. That is the situation I was in in Tampa. I needed to be in the lineup, so I played through injuries in Tampa. Now I want to do what I can for this team."