Davis on trying to be "a dangerous seven-hole hitter"

SEATTLE - With only four hits in his last 37 at-bats, Orioles first baseman Chris Davis was given a night off in Oakland to provide a brief mental break. He didn't play Thursday night despite the opposition starting a right-hander.

Davis' time on the bench was brief. He returned the following night and went 0-for-3 with a walk, but he's gone 6-for-13 with five RBIs in the last three nights while batting seventh in the order.

Has there been a difference in Davis since the night off?

"Statistically, yes," he said, smiling.

"There has been an increase in the hitting, which is good because I needed a little bit of positive feedback after the last few months, just kind of grinding it out. I feel like I've hit a lot of balls right at people. Obviously, with the shift, I'm going to hit more balls at guys than I'd like to, but I feel like I've hit a lot of balls this year on a line, either back up the middle or even to the left side of the outfield that have been caught.

"Even the ball off (Santiago) Casilla the other day that the guy in Oakland ran down, I was just like, 'Good grief, give me a break.' I don't know if it had anything to do with the day off. Maybe it did, maybe it didn't, but I'll take it any way I can get it right now."

Attempts to connect the dots lead to his drop in the order. What about batting seventh instead of the usually middle portion of the lineup? He hadn't hit that low in three years.

"I think a lot of it is coincidence," he said. "We haven't even talked about kind of the shakeup with the lineup. Most of the time the top four guys aren't really going to change. Well, I guess the top three guys now. But it is what it is.

"I'm not particularly a guy who enjoys batting at the bottom part of the order, but I also understand when I'm not swinging the bat well, that's probably one of the things that's going to be most beneficial for the team. So I'll put my ego aside and be a dangerous seven-hole hitter, or at least try to be."

Manager Buck Showalter didn't run the idea past Davis. There was no closed-door meeting.

"He's shuffled the lineup in the past," Davis said. "I know he did at the end of last year. It's not something that I necessarily look forward to, hitting in the bottom of the order, but I understand when other guys are swinging the bat well that he wants to get them toward the top and right now it's working.

"I'm not going to say anything. I'm still holding out hope that one day my name will be up there in the leadoff spot."

Another smile creases Davis' face.

Davis collected three hits last night for the first time since May 16, including an RBI double and run-scoring single. The double was slapped to left field, the single more up the middle.

Going the other way is "something that gives me a little bit of peace," Davis said.

"When I'm driving the ball the other way and they're catching them or running them down, it's obviously frustrating, but I think yesterday was kind of an early tone-setter for the game, getting the breaking ball out over the plate and being able to drive it to the opposite field. For a minute, I didn't even want to look up. 'He's going to catch it,' and turn around and go back to the dugout.

"It's kind of snowballed from there, so it's definitely nice to see the results."

Davis isn't necessarily making a conscious effort to hit the ball to left and left-center, though it's usually an indication that he's heating up.

"No, I think it's more of just trying not to do too much," he said. "I feel like a lot of times when you're scuffling or whenever you're trying to fight to get a feel, you tend to do too much. As far as I'm concerned, I've always been a guy that has been told to slow down as opposed to give him a kick in the rear end to get him going.

"It's hard at times to go out there and try to do too much. Sometimes, you have to kind of take a step back and just relax and let it come to you."

For the Mariners
Jean Segura SS
Guillermo Heredia LF
Robinson Canó 2B
Nelson Cruz DH
Danny Valencia 1B
Mike Zunino C
Leonys Martin RF
Danny Espinosa 3B
Jarrod Dyson CF

Andrew Albers LHP