Chris Davis on his left hand injury and team outlook after Friday loss

DETROIT - Orioles first baseman Chris Davis is still bothered by his left hand injury. He sat out Wednesday's game against Tampa Bay and got Thursday's off day to rest it, but that didn't seem to bring about much improvement.

Davis has dealt with it all year and knows he will be dealing with it the rest of the way. It is not to the point that he intends to miss any more games.

"I mean, it's been an issue all year," Davis said this afternoon. "So, it's not going to get any better until I have time to rest and obviously I am not going to rest right now with what's at hand. Swinging a bat is painful. I went 0-for-3 last night and had two days off before that. I don't think it made a whole lot of difference."

Over his last 21 games, Davis is batting .278 (20-for-72) with 11 homers and 16 RBIs. On the year, he is batting .227 with 35 homers and 78 RBIs in 135 games.

"I couldn't tell you if it was one specific event (that caused the discomfort)," he said. "It's something I've been dealing with all season. Obviously I haven't been myself all season, but that's part of it. Unfortunately, we have bodies that aren't invincible. When you play a physical game every day for months at a time, you are going to get nicks and bruises. You move on and keep going."

The Orioles 4-3 loss last night left them in a tie with Detroit for the second American League wild card spot. The clubhouse seemed excited about the series heading into Friday's game and that hasn't changed with a loss in the series opener.

"We're still in the middle of things," Davis said. "We're in a great position right now. That's the great thing about having two wild card teams is, you get a little bit more of an opportunity. But we still have a chance to win the division, and that is where our focus is."

Davis is aware that they will be written off by some observers after back-to-back one-run losses. He said that's par for the course.

"I mean, people are going to write us off every year. They've done it since I've been here. They're going to pick the Red Sox, Yankees and now the Blue Jays. Pretty much everybody except for us. That is just the way it is. For this group of guys, we couldn't care less what people think about us as a team. We're going out to compete and do whatever we can to win the game."