Kiké Hernández Renews His Reputation for October Heroics: “This Guy Always Rises”

Reggie Jackson will always be “Mr. October” in the minds of baseball fans, but around here that nickname might be associated with a lesser-known and little-noticed Dodgers utility man who seems to be doing his best work on baseball's biggest stage.

Kiké Hernández delivered his latest in a long line of autumnal blasts Friday night, sending a 95-mile-per-hour fastball from Yu Darvish deep into the left field pavilion and hitting a solo home run in the second inning for a 2-0 National League lead Division scored decisive victory in Game 5 over the San Diego Padres.

Read more: Plaschke: The playoff demons have disappeared! Dodgers outlast Padres, advance to NLCS

And for an encore, Hernández moved from center field to third base in the ninth inning and made two beautiful plays off grounders from Donovan Solano and Fernando Tatis Jr., the latter capping a thrilling winner-take-all game and drawing wild cheers from players on the mound and fans amid the sellout crowd of 53,183 at Chavez Gorge.

Not that his teammates expected anything different.

“Kiké hitting a home run and making big plays is probably the least surprising thing about the night,” Dodgers second baseman Gavin Lux said amid pulsating hip-hop music, showers of champagne and beer and a cloud of cigar smoke in a victorious clubhouse .

“He will always show up in the bigger games. He has a look in his eyes that he’s going to do something big, and this team benefits from that.”

Hernández, who was acquired at the 2023 trade deadline and returned to the Dodgers. He signed a one-year, $4 million contract last winter and is a career .238 hitter with a .713 on-base-plus-slugging percentage in 11 seasons in the major leagues. But in 75 postseason games, he hit .277 with an OPS of .899 and 14 home runs, nine of them 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 the spotlight. Some people love it. Some people run away from it.

“When you talk about this market, the offseason, the people in (his native) Puerto Rico watching him all over the country, he's at his best. This guy always rises to the occasion. The reason we got him this year was because we won 11 games in October.”

Hernández wasn't always wearing a cape in October. In his first postseason for the Dodgers, in 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 and hit a double play with First and third place runners to finish third place.

In 2016, Hernández went hitless in eight at-bats in an NL Championship Series loss to the Chicago Cubs.

“In my first postseason, we lost (Game 5) by one, and you go through scenarios of how the game could have gone differently – if I had come through for my team, the game would have gone differently and we might have advanced,” Hernandez said. “I followed the same mentality in 2016 and it didn’t go well for me.

“But in 2017 I had a completely different attitude. We had a great team, we had the ball, and the night before Game 5 of the NLCS I switched gears for the first time and said, “I'm tired of thinking what if, what if.” I went to bed thinking about how I was going to answer questions because I had a great day getting the team to the World Series.”

The next night at Wrigley Field, Hernández hit three homers and seven runs in an 11-1 win over the Cubs that sent the Dodgers to the World Series against the Houston Astros, “and I haven't looked back since,” he said.

As much pregame work as Hernández puts in to prepare for the outfield and four infield positions and keep his swing in shape, some of his most important work occurs between his ears, often the night before big games.

“You have to understand that there are only two options – you can either succeed or fail – but you can't be afraid of failure,” Hernández said. “You have to want the moment, want the attack. But it's very easy to imagine failure in the postseason, and fear and self-doubt and all those things start to creep into your head.

“That’s why I believe so strongly in the power of visualizing the night before the game. Whenever these doubts arise, I imagine myself succeeding again and again. They come to the field the next day and have already experienced the day. This way, nothing will overwhelm you. No moment becomes too big.”

Hernández, who moved into the starting lineup after shortstop Miguel Rojas aggravated his left adductor injury in Game 3 and hit two singles in an 8-0 win in Game 4, doesn't take advantage of these visualization techniques.

“Kiké told me before the game that he and I would be the first players with the same last name to take the yard in a playoff game, and we did it,” said outfielder Teoscar Hernández, whose solo shot came in the seventh game gave the Dodgers a win and a huge insurance increase. “I believe in him. He believes in me. I believe in myself and we enjoyed today.”

The pregame decision to follow his gut — and not necessarily the team's scouting report — contributed to Kiké Hernández's home run.

Read more: The Dodgers overcome recent postseason frustrations with a win in NLDS Game 5 against the Padres

“I was talking to the hitters and I said, 'I think we need to be on the fastball against Yu – he has way too many pitches to cover, and if you don't sit fast enough, he'll have like five misses.'” “Speed- Pitches,” Hernández said. “They had quite a different opinion than me. I’m glad I proved them wrong.”

Hernández jumped on Darvish's first-pitch fastball in the infield half and sent a 109.2 mph drive 428 feet into the left field seats. Ever the joker, Hernández grabbed third base coach Dino Ebel's groin as he trotted. After the game, he was so excited that he dropped a profanity on the field during a Fox Sports television interview.

“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 make a run with this team because I really wanted to make a save want to host,” Hernández said. “I knew I would find a way to win this game for us, whether it was on defense or at the plate.”

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This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.