Kiké Hernández was a hero for the Dodgers in 2017, and he showed in Game 5 of the NLDS against the Padres what he can do when the season is at stake.
Reggie Jackson will always be “Mr. October” in the minds of baseball fans, but around these parts, that moniker could be attached to a lesser-known and little heralded Dodgers utility man who seems to do his best work on baseball’s biggest stage.
Kiké Hernández delivered his latest in a long line of autumnal blasts on Friday night, sending a 95-mph fastball from Yu Darvish deep into into the left-field pavilion for a solo home run in the second inning of a 2-0 National League Division Series-clinching Game 5 victory over the San Diego Padres.
And, just for good measure, Hernández moved from center field to third base in the ninth inning and made two nice plays on Donovan Solano and Fernando Tatis Jr. grounders, the latter ending a tense winner-take-all game and igniting wild celebrations of players on the mound and fans amid the sellout crowd of 53,183 in Chavez Ravine.
Not that his teammates expected anything less.
“Kiké hitting a home run and making big plays is probably the least surprising thing of the night,” Dodgers second baseman Gavin Lux said amid pulsating hip-hop music, Champagne and beer showers and a haze of cigar smoke in a victorious clubhouse.
“In the bigger games, he’s always gonna show up. He’s got that look in his eyes that he’s gonna do something big, and this team feeds off of that.”
Hernández, who was acquired at the trade deadline in 2023 and returned to the Dodgers. on a one-year, $4-million deal last winter, is a career .238 hitter with a .713 on-base-plus-slugging percentage in 11 big-league seasons. But in 75 postseason games, he’s batting .277 with an .899 OPS and 14 home runs, nine for the Dodgers.
“We’re in Los Angeles with some of the greatest athletes of all time, and those great ones aren’t afraid to fail,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “Everyone knows Kiké loves the spotlight. Some people love it. Some people run from it.
