New York Yankees<\/a> in playoff contests.<\/p>\nLet\u2019s just get this out there: Hern\u00e1ndez is a lifetime .236 hitter, with a lifetime adjusted OPS of 91, both metrics suggesting he\u2019s a below-average player.<\/p>\n
But in the postseason? Well, this restless and goofy and adrenaline-seeking character might as well consider the playoff opener his personal Groundhog Day, waking up, seeing his shadow in the Chavez Ravine sunlight and banging out base hits like Dodger Dogs coming off the conveyor belt.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are the games I live for,\u201d Hern\u00e1ndez says the day before Game 1. \u201cIn life, you get put on the planet to do certain things.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd for me, I feel like I was put on this planet to love my family, make people laugh and play October baseball.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mission most certainly accomplished. Yet Hern\u00e1ndez can trace his playoff outbursts to a specific, and more serious point in time.<\/p>\n
In 2017, he was in his first full season with the Dodgers, his track record with them at that point \u2013 a .234 average, a .310 OBP from a light-hitting utilityman \u2013 consistent with his career numbers.<\/p>\n
But it was a unique and sobering year, for better and worse.<\/p>\n
Hern\u00e1ndez\u2019s pride swelled when he represented Puerto Rico in the World Baseball Classic, as the Boricuas made all the way to the finals before losing to Team USA.<\/p>\n
Then the regular season unfolded, and one of the greatest Dodger teams of this 13-year playoff run coalesced, winning 104 games. Yet as the season wound down, Hurricane Maria ravaged Puerto Rico, displacing 73,000 on the island and causing an estimated $92 billion in damage.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t have a great year on a personal level,\u201d says Hern\u00e1ndez, \u201cbut then at the end of the regular season we had that big hurricane back home. It put life into perspective for me. And baseball became a little more of a game than it was before that.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd that year, I felt like dedicating that postseason to my family, my people in need back home. Something came out in me that \u2013 I don\u2019t know how to explain it \u2013 but October starts, and for me, if your numbers aren\u2019t there in the regular season but you go out in the postseason and help your team win, in my eyes that\u2019s having a good year.\u201d<\/p>\n
And goodness, was that a good year.<\/p>\n
Hern\u00e1ndez hatched his postseason legend with a three-home run performance in Game 5 of the NLCS at Wrigley Field, vanquishing the defending champion Cubs and punching the Dodgers\u2019 ticket to their first World Series since 1988.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t his first playoff rodeo, but it was a harbinger.<\/p>\n
Kik\u00e9 Hern\u00e1ndez stats stun in October<\/p>\n
Nearly a decade later, these are Hern\u00e1ndez\u2019s playoff totals: A .282 average, a .356 on-base percentage, .863 OPS and 15 home runs in 299 plate appearances.<\/p>\n
To put that power in perspective, only twice has Hern\u00e1ndez topped 20 homers in a season and he needed 462 plate appearances to hit 21 in 2018, and 585 to hit 20 in 2021.<\/p>\n
All of that playoff damage save for 11 games with Boston in 2021 has come on the Dodgers\u2019 behalf. It\u2019s not the sight of playoff bunting on the upper deck; it\u2019s simply in the blood.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, it\u2019s very hard to feel adrenaline in the regular season and easier in the postseason,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019ve failed so much in the regular season throughout my career, that when it comes to playoff time I feel like I have absolutely nothing to lose.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt times, the hardest thing to do in this game is accept failure. And not be afraid of it and I\u2019m guilty of falling for it during the regular season. But once the playoffs come, all that matters is winning.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat intensity and added focus for me, and the electricity and atmosphere \u2013 a lot of that has to do with adrenaline.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the rep is by now well-earned, it can still slip under the radar.<\/p>\n
The Dodgers\u2019 2024 championship was nailed down in Game 5, when they erupted for five runs in the fifth inning and two more in the eighth, stunning New York at Yankee Stadium.<\/p>\n
While the Yankees\u2019 fielding foibles and heroics from Teoscar Hern\u00e1ndez commanded the spotlight, those rallies emanated from a different source: Leadoff singles by Kik\u00e9 Hern\u00e1ndez, off Gerrit Cole in the fifth and Tommy Kahnle in the eighth.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe just continues to rise to the occasion,\u201d says Dodgers legend Clayton Kershaw, the left-hander who will retire after this World Series. \u201cHe\u2019s always very prepared \u2013 you can count on Kik\u00e9 have a plan, to play great defense.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve always been thankful for Kik\u00e9. You always want him on your team, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n
Los Angeles is ‘second home’ for Kik\u00e9 Hern\u00e1ndez<\/p>\n
When Chase Utley finished his career with the Dodgers, Hern\u00e1ndez dubbed him \u201cDad,\u201d both in deference and accurately describing his role with the club. Now, Kershaw sees a lot of Utley in Hern\u00e1ndez, with his willingness to help younger players and pick up the finer points of the game, always.<\/p>\n
At this point, it almost seems like Hern\u00e1ndez, 34, has an open invitation to spring training at Camelback Ranch. Yet nothing is forever, and Hern\u00e1ndez has seen versatile stalwarts like Chris Taylor move on.<\/p>\n
He gets emotional knowing it\u2019s Turner, a mentor and friend, whose Dodgers playoff game record he\u2019ll break, and sanguine enough to know that superstars like Mookie Betts or Shohei Ohtani will someday surpass him.<\/p>\n
But he remains productive, and, at this time of year, indispensable. And though Puerto Rico will always be home, Hern\u00e1ndez realizes he\u2019s built another one in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
Even if that\u2019s due largely to his exploits just one month out of the year.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s my second home. It means the world to me,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s been a long relationship but the way the fans have embraced me since Day 1 has made the transition a lot better. From having uncertainty where you fit on the roster to wondering whether or not you\u2019re going to stick around in the big leagues to quickly becoming one of the fan favorites.<\/p>\n
\u201cI haven\u2019t had the greatest of careers when you\u2019re talking about regular season. But they still cheer on me and love on me like I was Shohei.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat speaks volumes. And that is something I will never take for granted.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dodgers vs. Blue Jays World Series preview: Who Has the Edge? USA TODAY Sports’ Gabe Lacques breaks down…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":239907,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[2872,64,63,4034,485,104455,5127,5158,14659,10962,12213,5128,5138,5284,19615,119382,56412,2871,1187,591,621,637,3127,2704,44,323,451,439,70462,85,635,35399,1720,143382,6114,3918],"class_list":["post-239906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-angeles","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-baseball","tag-california","tag-california-gold-rush","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-cubs","tag-classic","tag-clayton","tag-clayton-kershaw","tag-cubs","tag-dodgers","tag-gold","tag-justin","tag-justin-turner","tag-kershaw","tag-los","tag-los-angeles-dodgers","tag-mlb","tag-national","tag-national-sports","tag-new","tag-new-york-yankees","tag-news","tag-overall","tag-overall-positive","tag-positive","tag-rush","tag-sports","tag-sports-news","tag-turner","tag-world","tag-world-baseball-classic","tag-yankees","tag-york"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239906\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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