"Matt Capps was dealing with "a little bit of a dead arm" during a poor stretch of outings the first two weeks of July, the right-hander said Sunday.

It wasn't easy mentally, either.

"I wasn't feeling any discomfort or anything like that when all that was going on," he said. "It was just a bad week, and the fans at home booed, and I wanted to cry and punch people in the face."

In seven appearances from July 2-15, Capps was 0-2 with two blown saves and an 11.12 earned-run average in 5-2/3 innings. He had two saves, as well, but those were in Chicago. The bad stuff happened at Target Field; he also was pulled in the ninth inning in consecutive games and was booed off the field in four straight appearances.

"I felt like I didn't have anything on the ball," he said. "My slider didn't have any bite, my fastball didn't have any life, or sink, or anything. I felt like I was just throwing it to the catcher, instead of through the catcher like you're taught. I just didn't feel like I had that extension or anything like that."

The skid started when Capps blew a three-run lead in the ninth inning of an 8-7 loss to Milwaukee, and it ended when he lost a 1-0 lead against the Kansas City Royals on a two-run home run to rookie Eric Hosmer. Since then, Capps has allowed only one earned run, and Sunday he made his sixth consecutive scoreless appearance, pitching the seventh inning of a 7-3 loss to the Athletics at Oakland Coliseum. "