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Orioles' Davis on suspension: 'In a moment of weakness, I made a decision that cost me greatly'

Ed Szczepanski / USA TODAY Sports

Baltimore Orioles slugger Chris Davis has finally opened up about his 25-game suspension for a failed drug test in September that cost him the remainder of his 2014 season. 

“I haven’t really talked a lot about it,” Davis said on 95.1 SHINE-FM on Tuesday. “I didn’t want to take the focus off what the team was doing, but eventually I knew I was going to have to address it and I wanted to. I think the fans deserve an explanation. I think they want to know what happened. But basically, in a moment of weakness, I made a decision that cost me greatly.

“It just goes to show no matter how successful you’ve been in the past, no matter how much stuff you have, no matter how strong you are in your faith, the devil is going to continue to come after you. Looking back on it, it was probably the best thing that could have happened at the time, but it was definitely one of the hardest things that I’ve ever had to go through.”

Already without the services of third baseman Manny Machado and catcher Matt Wieters for the remainder of the season, Davis's suspension dealt a major blow to the division-leading Orioles' lineup two weeks before the start of the postseason. 

Davis left the team briefly, but rejoined the Orioles for the ALCS against the Kansas City Royals. The 28-year-old revealed that during his absence from the team, he struggled with dealing with the consequences of his suspension. 

“I was really down,” Davis said. “I was really depressed because I felt like I had let so many people down and had really just scarred my reputation to the point of where everything that I had done wasn’t really going to count for anything. 

"God just reached down and put his arm around me at that time and let me know that it’s OK to stumble as long as you continue to get up and move forward and learn from your mistakes. I’m at a point right now where I don’t wish to ever go through that again, but I appreciate the process and where it has brought me spiritually."

Davis has one more game to serve in his suspension that will force him to miss Opening Day. 

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