07/25/2005 7:57 PM ET

ST. PETERSBURG -- Damon Hollins entered Monday's game hitting .407 (11-for-27) since the All-Star break. At times, he has been streaky this season, which is not unusual for him.
"I've been like that a long time," Hollins said. "When you're going bad, you just have to find a way to battle out of it until you're going good again, and that's just baseball.

"I've always been a second-half player, so I just want to just keep battling. I'm here every day to work on the stuff I need to work on before the game and I was doing the same thing when I was going bad, you just want to stay in a routine."

Hollins was selected from Triple-A Durham on May 2 and proceeded to earn American League Rookie of the Month honors after leading AL rookies in average (.325), runs (19), stolen bases (5), home runs (6), RBIs (15), slugging (.600), and on-base percentage (.368). Hollins hit a cold spell leading up to the All-Star break, going 7-for-57 (.123) over 15 games to drop his average from .320 to .260.

"When I'm going bad, it doesn't matter who's on the mound, sometimes my mechanics just get out of whack," Hollins said. "When I'm going bad, if my swing's bad, my swing's bad, it doesn't matter if a Little League pitcher is out there. And when I'm going good, I'm going good. So it's just one of those things where you have to learn how to battle when you're going bad. I'm human, everybody goes through it."

A nice sidebar for Hollins was being given the opportunity to have a slump; he is a 31-year-old rookie who has had few breaks in his career.

"When I was going bad, [the Rays] sort of stayed with me," Hollins said. "It's huge for a player like me to see them kind of stick with me."