Reggie Jackson will always be “Mr. 'October'” in the minds of baseball fans, but in these parts the moniker could be assigned to a lesser-known and little-heralded Dodgers insider who seems to be doing everything he can on baseball's biggest stage.
Kike Hernandez delivered his latest in a long series of fall blasts Friday night, sending a 95-mph fastball from Yu Darvish deep into the left-field pavilion for a solo home run in the second inning of a 2-0 National League Division Series victory. Game 5 victory over the San Diego Padres.
Read more: Plaschke: The playoff demons are gone! Dodgers defeat Padres to advance to NLCS
And for good measure, Hernández moved from center field to third base in the ninth inning and made two nice plays on the bases of Donovan Solano and Fernando Tatis Jr., the latter ending a tense winner-takes-all game and sparking wild celebrations among the players on the mound and fans among a sellout crowd of 53,183 at Chavez Ravine.
Not that his teammates expected anything less.
“Kike's home run and big plays were probably the least surprising thing of the night,” Dodgers second baseman Gavin Lux said amid pulsing hip-hop music, champagne and beer showers and billows of cigar smoke in the winning clubhouse.
“He always shows up in the most important matches. He's got that look in his eyes that he's going to do something great, and this team is riding on that.”
Hernández, who was acquired at the 2023 trade deadline and returned to the Dodgers. Signed to a one-year, $4 million deal last winter, he is a career .238 hitter with a .713 on-base percentage in 11 big league seasons. However, in 75 postseason games he is hitting .277 with an .899 OPS and 14 home runs, including nine for the Dodgers.
“We are in Los Angeles with some of the greatest athletes of all time, and these greats are not afraid of failure,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “Everyone knows that Kiké loves to be the center of attention. Some people love it. Some people run away from it.
“When you talk about this market, after the season, about people from (his native) Puerto Rico watching him all over the country, that's when he's at his best. This guy always rises to the occasion. The reason we signed him this year was because we won 11 games in October.
Hernández didn't always wear a cape in October. In just his first season with the Dodgers, following a 3-2 loss to the New York Mets in the deciding Game 5 of the 2015 Division Series, Hernández struck out in the first inning with runners on first and third, then scored a double with runners on first and third place to finish third.
In 2016, Hernández went hitless in eight at-bats during an NL Championship Series loss to the Chicago Cubs.
“In my first postseason game, we lost (Game 5) by one run, and you wonder how the game could have gone differently – if I had gone for my team, the game would have been different and we might have advanced,” Hernández said. “In 2016, I went with the same mentality and it didn't go well.
“But in 2017, I had a completely different attitude. We had a great team, we were doing well, and the night before Game 5 of the NLCS, I switched gears for the first time and said, “I'm tired of wondering what if, what if.” I went to bed thinking about how I was going to answer the questions because I had a great day where I was able to put the team in the World Series.”
The next night at Wrigley Field, Hernández hit three home runs and seven runs scored in an 11-1 victory over the Cubs that sent the Dodgers to the World Series against the Houston Astros, “and I haven't looked back since.” he said.
While Hernández puts in a lot of work before a match to prepare for the pitch and the four goalkeeping positions and stay in good shape, some of his most important work takes place between his ears, often the night before big games.
“You have to understand that things can only go one of two ways — either you succeed or you fail — but you can't be afraid of failure,” Hernández said. “You have to want the moment, want the attack. However, it's very easy to see that you're going to fail after the season, and anxiety and self-doubt – all of these things start to creep into your mind.
“That's why I believe so strongly in the power of visualization the night before a match. Whenever these doubts arise, I imagine myself still being successful. The next day you go to the field and you see how that day happened. So nothing overwhelms you. No moment is too important.”
Hernández, who entered the starting lineup after Miguel Rojas was retained, aggravated his left adductor injury in Game 3 and was singled out twice in the 8-0 Game 4 victory, does not adopt these visualization techniques for himself.
“Kiké told me before the game that me and him would be the first players with the same last name in a playoff game, and we did,” said outfielder Teoscar Hernández, whose solo shot in the seventh gave the Dodgers a big insurance run. “I believe in him. He believes in me. I believe in myself and we are very happy today.”
The pregame decision to go with his gut — not necessarily the team's scouting report — contributed to Kiké Hernández's home run.
Read more: The Dodgers overcame recent postseason frustrations in Game 5 of the NLDS with a win over the Padres
“I was talking to the guys hitting and I thought, 'I think we've got to play fast against Yu – he's got way too many pitches to cover, and if you play too fast, he's got like five turnovers… fast pitches,'” Hernández said. “They disagreed with me quite strongly. I'm glad I proved them wrong.”
Hernández jumped on Darvish's first-pitch fastball in the inside half and sent a 170.2-mph fly ball 428 feet into the left-field seats. Always the prankster, Hernández trotted third base coach Dino Ebel. After the match, he was so excited that he cursed on the pitch during an interview for Fox Sports.
“I kept telling myself, 'They brought you here for a reason, they brought you here to play in October,' and I wanted to come back to run with this team because I really want to make a parade,” Hernández said. I knew that whether I was on defense or on the field, I would find a way to win this game for us.
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This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.
