NEW YORK – Los Angeles Dodgers people keep saying they brought back Kiké Hernández to help them win 11 games in October. Really? Hernández didn’t even start the team’s first three playoff games, entering the lineup only when shortstop Miguel Rojas could bear to play with his torn left adductor no more.
So, in the wake of Hernández’s 15th career postseason homer, a two-run shot that extended the Dodgers’ lead to 4-0 in Game 3 of the National League Championship Series on Wednesday night, the question begged to be asked:
If Rojas was healthy, would Hernández even be playing?
“That’s a good question. I’m glad I don’t have to answer that question,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said, smiling. “He’s in there now.”
He’s in there, all right, embodying the one-for-all, all-for-one ethos of the 2024 Dodgers. Granted, it’s a lot easier to count on interchangeable parts when your payroll is $325 million. But the Dodgers began doing this in spring training, when they moved Gavin Lux to second and installed Mookie Betts at short, costing Rojas his starting job. Rojas helped Betts adapt to his new position, then returned to short for the rest of the season after Betts fractured his left hand on June 17.
“That’s the mojo of this team,” Rojas said.
Betts missed nearly two months, returning in right field. Third baseman Max Muncy, who reached base five times and hit his second home run of the series in Game 3, was out more than three months with a strained left oblique. First baseman Freddie Freeman played 147 games, his lowest total since 2017, due to his son Max’s illness, a broken finger and severely sprained right ankle that continues to hamper him. And of course, an entire documentary could be written about the Dodgers’ pitching maladies, which include the placements of 12 starting pitchers on the injured list.
OCTOBER KIKÉ CONTINUES. pic.twitter.com/uyz4808cjV
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) October 17, 2024
Still, the Dodgers have enough. They always seem to, don’t they? Walker Buehler, coming off a frustrating regular season in his return from his second Tommy John surgery, recaptured his October magic on Wednesday night, crafting four scoreless innings. Game 4 starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto missed nearly three months with a strained right rotator cuff, only to pitch brilliantly in the winner-take-all game of the Division Series.
That’s the least the Dodgers should expect from their $325 million free agent, the most expensive pitcher in major-league history, but what makes this franchise so brutally efficient is that it wins on the margins, too. All three of its deadline acquisitions – Jack Flaherty, Tommy Edman and Michael Kopech – have emerged as major contributors. And Hernández, a $4 million signing on Feb. 26, after the start of spring training, is again rising to the moment. At age 33. After three straight subpar offensive campaigns.
Regular-season Kiké is a below-average hitter with a .233 career average and .713 OPS. October Kiké is a right-handed David Ortiz, batting .280 with a .903 OPS in 224 career postseason plate appearances. His home run off Yu Darvish in Game 5 of the DS gave the Dodgers the lead in a game they won, 2-0. His home run Wednesday night came in the sixth inning with two outs and two strikes, because of course it did.
Hernández fell behind Mets righty Reed Garrett, 1-2, fouled off a splitter, then a four-seam fastball well above his head. Playing in the postseason for the ninth time in 10 years, he was experienced enough to know he needed to gather himself.
“I told myself to slow down and get out of swing mode,” Hernández said. “The very next pitch, he made a mistake. I was able to get a good swing. I thought it was going to go really far. The wind kind of scared me for a second. But a homer’s a homer.”
Yet with Hernández, offense is only part of what he offers. Leadership is another part. Before Game 4 of the Division Series, with the Dodgers down two games to one, he challenged his teammates in a hitters’ meeting “not to run from this fight,” putting them, in the words of his manager, “on blast.”
Then there is Hernández’s defense, which is so good, Roberts trusts him at virtually every position. In Game 1 of the NLCS, Hernández made a breathtakingly athletic play in center, winding up to throw to third but then twisting his body to go to second instead, confusing the Mets’ Jesse Winker.
The next day, with Hernández playing second, Winker appeared to say something to him when their paths crossed on the bases. Was another Winker-Willy Adames situation brewing? Would Hernández tell Winker to meet him in the parking lot the way Adames did in Game 1 of the wild-card series?
Nah. Winker simply wanted to talk about the play.
“Were you going to throw to third base?” Winker asked.
“Yeah, but I saw you stop and threw to second,” Hernández replied.
“Wow,” Winker said, “that’s a really good play.”
Yet for all Hernández has accomplished, his return to the Dodgers didn’t look terribly well-conceived when he batted .191 with a .557 OPS before the All-Star break. A phone conversation he had in mid-June with then-White Sox catcher Martín Maldonado, a fellow native of Puerto Rico, helped turn his season around.
Maldonado, then with the White Sox, wanted a scouting report on a Diamondbacks pitcher. But he also sold Hernández on the benefits of wearing glasses. Hernández proceeded to undergo a more thorough eye examination than players typically do in spring training, and learned he had an astigmatism in his right eye. He couldn’t wear contacts because he suffers from another eye condition, pterygium. It took him a few weeks to adjust to glasses, but improved vision led to improved performance, a .274 average and .766 OPS after the break.
Still, he was not in the lineup for the first three games of the DS, with Roberts opting for Rojas at short and Edman in center. Rojas, off the roster for the NLCS, is hopeful he can return if the Dodgers reach the World Series. But at this point, it’s almost impossible to envision Roberts removing Hernández from the starting lineup the rest of the way.
“It’s nothing new to Dodger baseball to have a very deep 40-man roster,” Hernández said. “We’ve dealt with a lot of adversity, a lot of injuries throughout the season. A lot of people have contributed for us to be here at this point. I’m pretty sure it’s not going to stop here. I’m pretty sure if we get to where we want to, it’s going to take a lot of different heroes on a daily basis to get us there.”
To portray the Dodgers as underdogs would be disingenuous. Their payroll is the second-highest in the game. But the team they put on the field in the DS probably was not as talented as San Diego’s. And Hernández’s playoff heroics are symbolic of the team’s next-man-up success.
“I feel like this team, no matter what happens, we’re always going to find a way to get it done,” Rojas said.
Two wins away from the World Series, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to doubt them.
(Top photo of Kiké Hernández: Luke Hales/Getty Images)
