SI:AM | Kiké Hernández Is an Unlikely October Legend

The utilityman homered again in Game 3 against the Mets on Wednesday.

Hernández (8) is a different kind of player in October. / Brad Penner-Imagn Images

Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. If you got bored during the Dodgers’ blowout win over the Mets, I hope you watched the other New York team play a much more exciting game.

In today’s SI:AM:

🔵 Dodgers up 2–1
🗽 Liberty up 2–1
🥊 Pound-for-pound rankings

He’s on a roll

Los Angeles Dodgers utilityman Kiké Hernández has had a respectable MLB career, playing 11 seasons as an above-average defender at numerous positions while also holding his own at the plate. His biggest strength is his defensive versatility. He’s one of only four players in MLB history to play at least 100 career games at second base, shortstop, third base, left field and center field. That alone makes him worthy of a roster spot, even if he’s only posted two full seasons with an OPS better than league average.

It’s a different story in October, though.

With two outs and two strikes in the sixth inning of Game 3 of the NLCS against the New York Mets on Wednesday, Hernández hit a two-run homer to extend the Dodgers’ lead to 4–0. The dinger increased Los Angeles’s chances of winning the game to 91%.

It was just the latest in a series of career-defining postseason moments for Hernández, who now has 15 career playoff home runs, ranking eighth among all active players. The rest of that list consists of some of the most accomplished hitters of this generation.

1. Jose Altuve (27)
2. Kyle Schwarber (21)
T-3. George Springer, Alex Bregman and Corey Seager (19)
6. Carlos Correa (18)
7. Bryce Harper (17)
8. Kiké Hernández (15)
9. Aaron Judge (14)
T-10. Justin Turner, Max Muncy and Giancarlo Stanton (13)

Hernández really sticks out on that list. His career high for homers in the regular season is 21. The only other players in the top 10 without a 30-homer season are Correa (who has six 20-homer seasons) and Turner (five 20-homer seasons). Hernández only has three seasons with more than 12 homers.

So how has he hit so many postseason homers? Well, for one thing, Hernández has spent most of his career with the Dodgers, who have made the playoffs every year that he’s played for them. He also reached the postseason in 2022 with the Boston Red Sox. His 78 postseason games played are tied for fifth among players on that top 10 list above. But his unusually high number of October home runs isn’t simply a product of him having played lots of playoff games. Hernández undoubtedly steps his game up in the postseason. His career OPS is .713. In the playoffs, it’s .903. He has 120 career regular-season home runs in 1,183 games. That works out to an average of 16 homers per 162 games. In the postseason, he’s averaging 31 homers per 162 games.

“I think some people just really like the moment,” Hernández’s teammate Austin Barnes said after Game 3. “He’s one of the people who can focus and bear down in those moments. He wants the moment. I think that’s a talent and a skill.”

The Dodgers have an excellent offense, ranking second in the majors this season with 5.2 runs scored per game. But teams often need offense from unlikely sources in the postseason, when the impact of one or two slumping stars is felt more severely. Having a hot hitter like Hernández at the bottom of the lineup makes an offense that already has Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman even more dangerous. If Hernández keeps hitting like this, he’ll have a great shot at winning a second World Series ring. Whether or not the Dodgers win the championship, though, Hernández deserves to be recognized as one of the best postseason performers of his generation.

💥SABRINA IONESCU😱 pic.twitter.com/66gLQPcVCt

— NBA TV (@NBATV) October 17, 2024

The best of Sports Illustrated

• Kiké Hernández wasn’t the only unlikely Dodgers hero on Wednesday. As Nick Selbe writes, Walker Buehler, who struggled in the regular season, stepped up big time in Game 3.

• The Liberty took a 2–1 lead in the WNBA Finals behind a monster game from Breanna Stewart and a clutch three from Sabrina Ionescu. Michael Rosenberg has more on New York’s biggest win in franchise history.

• Pat Forde explains why Oregon’s now-famous 12 men on the field penalty against Ohio State might not have been intentional after all.

• Matt Verderame looked back at past Super Bowl winners to come up with a list of 11 teams that have a shot at winning this season.

• Artur Beterbiev jumped up Chris Mannix’s pound-for-pound boxing rankings after a big win over the weekend.

• Thunder center Isaiah Hartenstein will miss at least the first month of the season.

• The Titans are releasing former All-Pro safety Jamal Adams.

The top five…

… things I saw last night:

5. Sidney Crosby’s assist to become the 10th player in NHL history with 1,600 points.
4. Lonzo Ball’s three-pointer from the corner. It was just a normal shot, but it was the first shot he took in an NBA game in two years.
3. Shohei Ohtani’s upper deck home run. His understated celebration was pretty cool, too.
2. Francisco Lindor’s diving play at shortstop.
1. Sabrina Ionescu’s deep three to win the game for the Liberty.