Baltimore — John Hicks walked to the plate in the eighth inning Wednesday night carrying the weight of a 2-for-30 skid on his back. His strikeout in the third inning — in which he swung at a pitch that bounced and then took a called third strike — was his 14th in that span.
"Chasing pitches," he said. "You start pressing, you start changing things that don't need to be changed. Even in batting practice I wasn't feeling good."
On Monday, Hicks made a beeline for the batting cages underneath Orioles Park at Camden Yards.