Hicks, who recorded two strikeouts over a scoreless eighth inning in an extra-inning loss to the Royals on Wednesday, intentionally focused on deploying his slider -- as opposed to his triple-digit sinker -- during the outing, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports. "That's my go-to strikeout pitch (and) it hasn't been there lately," Hicks said. "I'm not going to go out there and overthrow for 106 or something that's not going to happen. If I get a little extra and I feel like it, I'm going to go get it. If I don't, I won't."
Hicks set the baseball world abuzz last Sunday by hitting 105 mph on the radar gun twice with his sinker in an encounter against the Phillies' Odubel Herrera. However, despite the considerable firepower residing in his right arm, Hicks hadn't recorded multiple strikeouts in an outing since April 10 prior to Wednesday, and his current 4.3 K/9 ranks him 248th among 253 pitchers who've thrown at least 20 innings this season. While those numbers may not make sense on the surface given Hicks' velocity, Goold explains that the sinker's action moves the ball to the end of the bat, prompting more frequent contact. Consequently, pitching coach Mike Maddux has been working with Hicks on honing a pair of breaking pitches that top out in the mid-80s, in an effort to boost his strikeout rate. The results were evident against the Royals, as both of Hicks' punchouts came on the slider, and neither offering exceeded 85 mph.