Angels’ Josh Hamilton sits with sore wrist, sore batting average

First the Angels moved the slumping Josh Hamilton to the seventh spot in the batting order.

On Friday they moved him to the bench -- where Manager Mike Scioscia says he’s likely to stay until Tuesday.

“A limited capacity,” Scioscia said when asked about Hamilton’s availability. “We’ll see when he’s available. But he’ll be limited.”

Limited also describes Hamilton’s production this season, his first after signing a five-year, $125-million contract with the Angels over the winter. Hamilton, a career .295 hitter, is batting .207 with 10 home runs and 25 runs batted in. He’s also struck out 76 times in 71 games.

Scioscia said Hamilton is being bothering by a tendinitis-like condition in his right wrist.

“We want give that some time to heal,” Scioscia said. “He’s going to get an evaluation from doctors today and see if there’s any kind of medicine or something that can help it. It’s been bothering him for about 10 days or so, just on and off. It’s just something that we want to get a handle on.”

But Scioscia said he didn’t think the wrist condition was responsible for Hamilton’s struggles at the plate.

“It’s more just a rhythm and timing issue and a comfort level,” he said. “There’s probably some things it did. Obviously his game prep and some of the drills he had to do you had to scale back. But as far as in the [batter’s] box and swinging, I think it was more along the lines of a rhythm and timing issues.”

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