"As the two veteran leaders on an underachieving team deprived of its best hitter, Torii Hunter and Bobby Abreu have carried a heavy load.

And it has clearly worn on them.

Hunter went 20 games without driving in a run his solo home run Saturday, essentially the longest RBI-less stretch of his major-league career. (His only longer streak, 22 games in 2000, was wrapped around a demotion to Triple-A.) And he has been a repeat offender when it comes to misguided overaggressive baserunning.

Meanwhile, Abreu (who drove in three runs Sunday) appears headed to career full-season lows in batting average (.253), on-base percentage (.348) and slugging percentage (.428) and seems certain to fall short of 100 RBI for the first time since 2002 and 90 runs scored for the first time since 1998. Sunday's three RBI matched his total for his previous 21 games.

"I think more than anyone else, those guys were affected by (Kendry) Morales being out," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "They've missed that bat that would have been behind those guys and I think it's affected what they've done at times. They've expanded (what they will swing at), trying to give the production we need much like we've talked about with Jered Weaver and a pitcher not getting the run support.

"Just like a pitcher can't try to make every pitch a perfect pitch, a hitter can't try to do too much. It's a bad habit to get into. ... It's understandable. They sense what their contribution needs to be and sometimes they go out of their game.""