Yankees' Aaron Hicks Makes Most of Rare Start
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OAKLAND — For Aaron Hicks, each day at the ballpark presents a new opportunity, another chance to break through and find ways to contribute.
So even after the slumping outfielder was booed off the field on Thursday night in Oakland, striking out swinging as a pinch-hitter in the eighth inning of a blowout win, Hicks showed up the next day and got back to work, biding his time until his next shot between the lines.
The 32-year-old needed to wait until Sunday afternoon, getting the start in center field in the finale of New York's four-game set against the Athletics.
Enduring one of the worst stretches of his entire career—making just his second start in a two-week span since one of the worst nights of his career—Hicks finally made an impact.
In his second at-bat, swinging from the left side against Oakland's starter Adrián Martínez, Hicks scalded a single to center field. He entered that plate appearance with five hits in his previous 61 at-bats (dating back to July 27 at Citi Field in Queens).
After advancing to second base on a wild pitch, Hicks scampered around to score on a Kyle Higashioka RBI single, New York's long run of the afternoon.
The outfielder added a spectacular at-bat later on as well, battling to work a nine-pitch walk against left-hander Sam Moll. Hicks was feet away from a double down the left-field line early in that at-bat as well, forced to walk all the way back to home plate after watching the line drive hook foul.
"Good to see him smoke a ball through the middle from the left side," Yankees manager Aaron Boone said after the loss. "That was good to see. Real competitive at-bat there from the right side to work the walk his last time, so that was good to see him come in and put together some competitive at-bats."
Speaking in front of his locker in the clubhouse after the game, Hicks said that he could build on his performance, assuring that he's feeling good physically. He has no issues in his left wrist, the spot where he underwent season-ending surgery a year ago, ending his campaign after just 32 games, a career-low.
"Pretty much just spending most of my time in the cages, working on stuff, really trying to fine-tune my swing and figure out ways to get back to hitting the ball solid," Hicks added.
Even after Sunday's single, Hicks is hitting .216/.337/.302 with 83 strikeouts in 106 games this year. He's struggled mightily with barreling the baseball, failing to get results with slug or find any sort of consistency.
"I've just really been working on trying to hit the ball up the middle more, hit line drives up the middle, and try to get the ball off the ground on the pull side," Hicks explained.
The problem for Hicks is that he might not be in the starting lineup again for a few days. With his cringeworthy numbers and Oswaldo Cabrera's emergence as an option in the outfield, Boone's relegated Hicks to the bench for much of this month.
Hicks added that playing time has been the biggest challenge in his journey to, well, earn playing time. Facing big-league pitching and breaking out of a slump is hard as it is. Doing it when you're rarely in the bo makes that process even tougher.
"Go four or five days without playing and then have an at-bat against a tough pitcher, that's probably the toughest part about that," Hicks said. "Especially if you come off cold and then try to go hit, try to go get a hit for yourself and for the team, it's definitely tough."
MORE:
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- Yankees' Domingo Germán Finishes Impressive Month With 'Terrific' Performance in Oakland
- Yankees' Lou Trivino Nearly Entered Game Wearing Wrong Jersey
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