ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Rangers outfielder Josh Hamilton is returning to Texas for further examination of a sinus problem that has forced him to miss two straight games.
Hamilton tops the majors with 42 home runs. He left Tuesday's series opener in the fourth inning with a recurring sinus problem that makes it tough for him to breathe.
"Everybody in my family's been sick," Hamilton said before the AL West leaders took batting practice. "The last five or six days I've been battling something. Anytime I get sick, it usually turns into a sinus infection. Sometimes it can cause me to be off-kilter, off-balance, but this is the first time it's caused me not to be able to focus the way I want to on the field."
"The more you run when you can't breathe as good, you get a little dizzy, a little thrown off. It just is what it is. If your head's a little stopped up, you can get a little starry-eyed, dizzy. I had the MRI just to make sure everything was good to go. My eyesight is great. I got that checked out. It's 20-15. It used to be 20-10, but I'm getting a little older. That's good, but all the congestion that's in there is slowing things down a bit as far as depth perception and things like that."
Hamilton entered Thursday with one more home run than Detroit's Miguel Cabrera. That's the only Triple Crown category Cabrera is trailing in as he attempts to become the first Triple Crown winner since Boston's Carl Yastrzemski in 1967.
"Maybe I'm sick for a reason. Maybe it's his time," Hamilton said. "I don't really care about holding on to the home run lead. He's a good dude and he's played consistently well for a long time. It would be cool if there was another winner. There's nobody I'd rather see win it than him."
Fellow Texas slugger Adrian Beltre was back in the lineup for the AL West leaders on Thursday night against the Angels. Both players missed Wednesday's game with ailments.
Beltre sat out one game with abdominal discomfort and wasn't in the Rangers' initial lineup Thursday, but talked his way into the cleanup spot as a designated hitter after batting practice.
The Rangers' road trip concludes with three weekend games in Seattle.
