Yanks' Aaron Hicks strains hamstring running out ground ball

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- On the night of one of their biggest wins of the season, the New York Yankees also suffered a loss -- that of right fielder Aaron Hicks, who suffered a strained right hamstring running out a grounder in the ninth inning of the Yankees 5-4, 13-inning win over the Royals at Kauffman Stadium.

Hicks pulled up halfway to first base after grounding to shortstop and hobbled slowly back to the Yankees dugout. He was removed from the game and was replaced in right field by Aaron Judge.

Yankees manager Joe Girardi said Hicks would likely undergo an MRI on Thursday.

"I'm concerned,'' Girardi said. "Anytime you have a speed guy that injures a hamstring, you're concerned. My guess is, it's not day-to-day. But until we have tests I'm not really going to know. "

Hicks echoed the manager's concern.

"I just don't feel good. My hamstring just doesn't feel that great," he said. "I have no idea how long this is going to take. We'll see what we've got tomorrow and we'll go from there."

With rosters expanding to 40 on Thursday, there is no longer any need to put players on the 15-day disabled list to free up a roster spot. But Hicks said the last time he suffered a similar injury, it took him about three weeks to return to action.

"It's definitely frustrating, especially since I've been swinging the bat well,'' said Hicks, who struggled to reach .200 for much of the first half of the season but batted .280 in August. "Of course I'd like to keep that going. The team has been winning, we've been scoring a lot of runs and coming up with big wins just like we did tonight."