Hicks fired 1.1 scoreless innings in Monday's 8-4 win over the Brewers, allowing a walk and recording a strikeout.
That's three straight scoreless appearances to open up his major-league career, the latest development in the rookie's meteoric rise. Hicks has rung up a strikeout in each of his first three games as well -- unsurprising given the elite velocity he possesses. Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that prior to Monday's outing, six of the eight fastest pitches thrown in the majors thus far in the new season came off the right arm of Hicks, whose two-seam fastballs during that stretch all clocked at 100 mph or more. He also used a 99.3 mph sinker to set down Todd Frazier in Sunday's win over the Mets, flashing yet another lethal tool in an arsenal that projects to afford him plenty of late-inning opportunities over the course of the season.