The Los Angeles Dodgers had relied on the recent bat of Kiké Hernandez within the postseason even earlier than his dwelling run Friday gave them the lead for good towards the San Diego Padres.
The Dodgers’ eventual 2-0 win clinched the best-of-five Nationwide League Division Sequence and eradicated the Padres, their NL West rivals.
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In Recreation 5 of the 2017 NLCS, Hernández shocked the Chicago Cubs with a three-homer sport to clinch the Dodgers’ first journey to the World Sequence in 29 years.
The evening earlier than, he tapped into a way that has keyed his postseason success ever since.
Harry How/Getty Photographs
“I am simply going to go to mattress pondering simply how I will reply questions the subsequent day as a result of I simply had an ideal day offensively; I put the crew into the World Sequence, blah, blah, blah,” he stated. “Quick-forward to the subsequent day, I hit three dwelling runs and I have never appeared again since then. You’ve got simply obtained to grasp that there is solely two methods it may possibly go. You possibly can both have success or you possibly can fail. You simply cannot be afraid of failure. And you have simply gotta need the second, gotta need the at-bat.”
Hernández spent a part of his Thursday evening visualizing success towards Yu Darvish, the San Diego Padres’ beginning pitcher. In his first at-bat Friday, he hit a solo dwelling run towards Darvish that gave Los Angeles the lead for good.
It was the 14th dwelling run of Hernández’s postseason profession. His .535 slugging share within the postseason coming into Friday’s sport dwarfs his profession common season slugging share of .405.
Teoscar Hernández later got here by with a solo dwelling run of his personal. Beginning pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto — who was roughed up by the Padres in Recreation 1 — threw 5 shutout innings.
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In a postgame interview on the sphere with Fox Sports activities’ Ken Rosenthal, Kiké Hernández gave a memorable quote on reside tv.
Ken Rosenthal: You’ve got been a part of eight totally different postseasons right here. What’s totally different about this explicit crew?
Kiké Hernández: Are we reside?
Rosenthal: We’re reside.
Hernández: The truth that we do not give a fuck.pic.twitter.com/kqJ23DroEl
— Terrible Asserting (@awfulannouncing) October 12, 2024
Hernández’s capability to visualise one other huge second earlier than it arrived, and proceed the method for seven years operating within the postseason, is a testomony to his worth to the Dodgers.
Subsequent up for Los Angeles: an NL Championship Sequence date with the New York Mets. Recreation 1 is Sunday at Dodger Stadium. Pitcher Jose Quintana is anticipated to begin at the very least one sport within the sequence for the Mets. Coincidentally, Hernández already has a postseason dwelling run towards Quintana — in Recreation 5 of the 2017 NLCS.
For extra MLB postseason information, go to Newsweek Sports,
