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Shohei Ohtani's Teammate Announces He's Coming for His Job in Funny Postgame Interview

Kiké Hernandez put up a scoreless inning on the bump Saturday night.

Josh Wilson

Enrique Hernandez and Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Dodgers
Enrique Hernandez and Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Dodgers / Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports
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The Los Angeles Dodgers, up 10-0 going into the bottom of the ninth inning Saturday night, wisely decided not to expend any of their bullpen arms. Instead, they turned to utilityman Kiké Hernandez. It wasn't his first time taking the mound; Hernandez saw a third of an inning in 2018 and once last month as well.

After two appearances this year, Hernandez has yet to give up an earned run. Is he elite?

I kid, and Hernandez did after the game, too.

"Offense, defense, pitching? You're basically Shohei Ohtani!," Kirsten Watson said in his postgame on-field interview. Hernandez replied, "Shohei, who?" before running away into the dugout to end the interview, to the shock of Watson.

While there's likely not a future as a pitcher for the Dodger, he did admit the offense gave him confidence to play on the mound.

"I had a great game at the plate so I was feeling overly confident on the mound. I knew my stuff was gonna play especially with the defense behind me," Hernandez said.

"Probably a rookie mistake," he joked about the one extra base hit he gave up.

Ohtani is not pitching this season as he recovers from an elbow injury and surgery, but the expectation is he'll be back to being a two-way player next year. For now, Hernandez is the closest the Dodgers have.

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Josh Wilson
JOSH WILSON

Josh Wilson is the news director of the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. Before joining SI in 2024, he worked for FanSided in a variety of roles, most recently as senior managing editor of the brand’s flagship site. He has also served as a general manager of Sportscasting, the sports arm of a start-up sports media company, where he oversaw the site’s editorial and business strategy. Wilson has a bachelor’s degree in mass communications from SUNY Cortland and a master’s in accountancy from the Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois. He loves a good nonfiction book and enjoys learning and practicing Polish. Wilson lives in Chicago but was raised in upstate New York. He spent most of his life in the Northeast and briefly lived in Poland, where he ate an unhealthy amount of pastries for six months.

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