Hicks blasts 3 HRs, Twins beat Phillies

CLEARWATER, Fla. (AP) — Aaron Hicks made a pretty strong case that he should be the Twins’ starting center fielder.

He homered three times and helped the Twins to a 10-6 victory against the Phillies on a windy Thursday. He now has five home runs in his last three games.

“Wow, what do you say? Play the elements,” Twins manager Rod Gardenhire said. “Wind’s blowing out, and he hit ‘em out where the wind’s blowing. Pretty fun day. You don’t see that too many times.”

Hicks hit homers in the first, fifth and seventh innings, the first coming on the second pitch of the game from Phillies starter Cliff Lee. He went 4 for 5 in the game with six RBIs.

“He had a pretty good day,” Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said. “Mother Nature kind of helped him though.”

Hicks came up in the eighth inning with a chance at four homers, but instead laced a broken-bat, two-RBI single to center.

“Of course I wanted to go for the fourth one,” Hicks said. “I had two pitches to do it on, missed both of them. Got a changeup, broken-bat base hit. Died a hero but got two runs in.”

Hicks said the last time he hit three home runs was in high school.

Lee pitched 3 2-3 innings, gave up two runs, four hits and struck out five in his third appearance of spring training.

“I feel good,” Lee said. “I feel strong. I felt like I could keep going, but I don’t know what my pitch count was.”

Tags: sports, twins, mlb