For Kiké Hernández, the common season is little greater than a six-month warm-up. Actual baseball is performed when the night air turns crisp and the leaves start to alter.
And when summer season turns to fall few gamers have stepped up larger than Hernández, who had two hits, scored two runs and drove in one other Wednesday, spurring a Dodger comeback that resulted in an 8-4 win over the Cincinnati Reds and a sweep of their Nationwide League wild-card sequence.
That sends the workforce on to the best-of-five Division Sequence with the Phillies, which begins Saturday in Philadelphia.
“October Kiké is one thing fairly particular,” Dodger supervisor Dave Roberts stated. “And the observe document speaks for itself. He’s among the best all through the historical past of the postseason.”
It’s a repute he’s earned.
A .236 profession hitter within the common season, Hernández has hit .286 in 88 postseason video games. He slashed .203/.255/.366 in an injury-marred common season this 12 months, however two video games into the playoffs he’s hitting .500, leads the Dodgers with three runs scored and ranks second to Mookie Betts with 4 hits. He additionally made a splendid over-the-shoulder catch whereas racing to the warning observe within the first inning Wednesday.
“Some guys are constructed for this second. He’s positively one in all them,” stated third baseman Max Muncy, standing in the course of the Dodgers’ batting cage through the workforce’s postgame celebration, his blue T-shirt soaked in champagne as a teammate poured beer over his head.
Hernández, sporting goggles however not a shirt, made a quick look on the victory celebration however departed to have fun with household earlier than the champagne and beer started to puddle on the plastic sheeting that lined the ground.
His teammates have been all too completely happy to talk about him in his absence.
“He’s a man who shouldn’t be shy from the from the second,” infielder Miguel Rojas stated. “I really feel just like the common season for him shouldn’t be sufficient.”
Rojas stated he realized that first hand after rejoining the Dodgers in 2023. Though the workforce’s playoff run was transient, Hernández led the workforce with two RBIs and was second in hits and common.
“I noticed it on TV earlier than. However after I bought right here I noticed that it was actual,” he stated. “He all the time wished the second and he confirmed it tonight with a giant double to tie the sport.”
That got here with one out within the fourth, when his line drive to middle discipline scored Muncy from first to tie the rating, 2-2. 4 pitches later he scored on Rojas’ single, placing the Dodgers forward to remain.
However Hernández wasn’t completed. Two innings later he led off with a squibber up the third-base line that was going foul earlier than it hit the bag for a single, beginning a four-run rally that put the sport away. The underside third of the Dodger lineup — Hernández, Rojas and catcher Ben Rortvedt — mixed to go six for 12 with 5 runs and two RBIs.
“Kiké is Kiké,” outfielder Teoscar Hernández stated above the din of the celebration. “That’s the man you get when October begins.”
Earlier than that? Not a lot. However for Hernández, the postseason has turn into redemption time.
“I do know they introduced me right here for some of these moments,” he stated earlier than Wednesday’s recreation.
“The attractive factor in regards to the postseason is that after we get to the postseason, all the pieces begins at zero. You possibly can have a nasty 12 months and also you flip the script and also you begin over within the postseason. You have got a very good postseason, assist the workforce win, and no one ever remembers what you probably did within the common season.”
Hernández, 34, owes a lot of his fall heroics merely to the chance to play on the game’s greatest stage. In a dozen big-league seasons, he’s made the playoffs 10 instances, enjoying in 21 postseason sequence with the Dodgers and Boston Crimson Sox and profitable two World Sequence rings.
“I’ve been blessed to be on the best workforce on the proper time,” he stated. “Being a very good postseason participant is form of a person factor, however probably not. You’re on a workforce that doesn’t make the playoffs, you’ll be able to’t be a postseason participant.
“I simply occur to be on a number of actually good groups, and I’ve been lucky sufficient to get a number of possibilities.”
Along with his efficiency Wednesday, he assured himself a minimum of three extra possibilities within the division sequence with the Phillies. And Rojas expects him to take full benefit.
“He all the time desires the second and he desires to be on the market,” he stated. “I’m studying from him each single day. He’s essentially the most ready man that I’ve ever performed with.”
Particularly in October.
