Hicks on ALDS loss: ‘I’m not over it until we win’
FORT MYERS, Fla. — Four months have passed, but one New York Yankees outfielder is still bugged by playoff loss that sent his team to an early exit last fall.
“I’m still not over it,” Yankees center fielder Aaron Hicks said Saturday. “I’m not over it until we win.”
Hicks made the comments during the middle of the Yankees’ spring-training opener at the Red Sox’s JetBlue Park, when asked how long it took him to get over the American League Division Series defeat.
Although Saturday’s game was an exhibition which featured only one of Boston’s regular players — Rafael Devers — it was the first between the two clubs since Boston’s series-clinching 4-3 win in the Bronx in Game 4 of the ALDS last October.
A couple weeks later, the Red Sox won their ninth World Series.
Brett Gardner won a title with the Yankees in his second season in 2009, but New York hasn’t reached the World Series since and Gardner called it “a disappointing 10 years” on Thursday.
“I want to win a World Series,” Hicks continued. “I’m tired of losing. We’ve come so close, but I’m tired of saying we came close.”
The seven-year veteran, who manager Aaron Boone earlier Saturday called “maybe the most underrated player in the game,” has been to the postseason twice. Before last year’s ALDS loss, Hicks was part of the 2017 Yankees’ ALCS defeat at the hands of the eventual World Series champion Houston Astros.
Hicks apparently isn’t the only Yankee entering this season motivated by the postseason disappointments.
“We’ve come in a little bit more hungry,” second-year second baseman Gleyber Torres said.
Before being taken out after three and a half innings in the spring training game, Hicks went 1-for-2 with a double, and Torres launched a deep first-inning solo homer to center.
The Red Sox ended up taking the rematch, beating the Yankees 8-5.