The latest on Yankees' Aaron Hicks injury: How long will he be out?

by Felix Pantaleón

Yankees center fielder Aaron Hicks (sore left ankle) was on the bench for Sunday’s game against the Orioles at Yankee Stadium.

Watch video

NEW YORK — Teammates grabbed and shoved and hugged Aaron Hicks, the reason the Yankees beat the Orioles, 3-2, in 11 innings and clinched a playoff berth on Saturday night.

They even snapped his necklace in half. They were that excited after Hicks’ double scored Didi Gregorius and sealed the walk-off win.

After the game, Hicks felt good and was in pain at the same time.

His left ankle was heavily wrapped. That’s because earlier in the clutch at-bat, he fouled a ball off it. Hicks immediately fell to the ground, had trouble getting up and was doubled over in pain — all while trying to convince manager Aaron Boone and trainer Steve Donohue he should be allowed to stay in the game.

Afterward, Hicks said he was in pain but that nothing was broken.

“It hurts, for sure,” he said. “It’s going to be sore (Sunday), that’s for sure. I think I went off adrenaline from there. But, yeah, I just got an X-ray test and it came back negative.”

Judge has ‘captain’ moment with Voit

He wasn’t in the starting lineup for Sunday’s game against the Orioles at Yankee Stadium.

Instead, Brett Gardner was set to start in center field.

Boone said he believed Hicks will be ready to play when the Yankees fly to Tampa for a four-game set starting Monday.

“Touched base with him last night,” Boone said. “He was a little bit sore last night. We’ll see how he comes in today. I think he’ll be fine. I think he was a little bit sore, obviously, last night.

“He’ll be all right. Hopefully he can get a full day today and he’ll be good to go against Tampa.”