The Los Angeles Dodgers had relied on the hot bat of Kiké Hernandez in the postseason even before his home run Friday gave them the lead for good against the San Diego Padres.
The Dodgers’ eventual 2-0 win clinched the best-of-five National League Division Series and eliminated the Padres, their NL West rivals.
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In Game 5 of the 2017 NLCS, Hernández stunned the Chicago Cubs with a three-homer game to clinch the Dodgers’ first trip to the World Series in 29 years.
The night before, he tapped into a technique that has keyed his postseason success ever since.
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – OCTOBER 11: Kiké Hernández #8 of the Los Angeles Dodgers celebrates after his solo home run against the San Diego Padres with Teoscar Hernández #37 during the second inning of Game Five of the Division Series at Dodger Stadium on October 11, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. Kiké Hernández’s ability to visualize big moments before they happen has keyed his postseason success.
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“I’m just going to go to bed thinking just how I’m going to answer questions the next day because I just had a great day offensively; I put the team into the World Series, blah, blah, blah,” he said. “Fast-forward to the next day, I hit three home runs and I haven’t looked back since then. You’ve just got to understand that there’s only two ways it can go. You can either have success or you can fail. You just can’t be afraid of failure. And you’ve just gotta want the moment, gotta want the at-bat.”
Hernández spent part of his Thursday night visualizing success against Yu Darvish, the San Diego Padres’ starting pitcher. In his first at-bat Friday, he hit a solo home run against Darvish that gave Los Angeles the lead for good.
It was the 14th home run of Hernández’s postseason career. His .535 slugging percentage in the postseason entering Friday’s game dwarfs his career regular season slugging percentage of .405.
Teoscar Hernández later came through with a solo home run of his own. Starting pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto — who was roughed up by the Padres in Game 1 — threw five shutout innings.
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In a postgame interview on the field with Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal, Kiké Hernández gave a memorable quote on live television.
Hernández’s ability to visualize another big moment before it arrived, and continue the technique for seven years running in the postseason, is a testament to his value to the Dodgers.
Next up for Los Angeles: an NL Championship Series date with the New York Mets. Game 1 is Sunday at Dodger Stadium. Pitcher Jose Quintana is expected to start at least one game in the series for the Mets. Coincidentally, Hernández already has a postseason home run against Quintana — in Game 5 of the 2017 NLCS.
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