{"id":830484,"date":"2026-07-29T04:16:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T04:16:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/830484\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T04:16:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T04:16:17","slug":"kike-hernandezs-rehab-brings-him-back-to-dodgers-sooner-than-expected","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/830484\/","title":{"rendered":"Kik\u00e9 Hern\u00e1ndez\u2019s rehab brings him back to Dodgers sooner than expected"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES \u2014 Kik\u00e9 Hern\u00e1ndez returned to the Los Angeles Dodgers<\/a> on Tuesday, two months after being sidelined with a severe oblique injury that occurred two days into his season debut.<\/p>\n

The utility man who turns 35 in late August missed the first two months of the season recovering from left elbow surgery. He was back for two games \u2014 going 4 for 4 with two doubles and a home run \u2014 before getting injured again in late May during batting practice.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like everything is in a pretty good spot right now,\u201d Hern\u00e1ndez said. \u201cTrying to keep my 1.000 batting average going and be the best hitter in the league.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hern\u00e1ndez had been projected to be out three months with the left oblique tear. He accelerated the recovery process with a stem cell injection and rehab that included sitting in a hyperbaric chamber daily.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you hear that it\u2019s a grade 3 full tear, you kind of get scared and you think the worst,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Driving home after an MRI revealed the magnitude of the injury, a kind he had never had in his career, Hern\u00e1ndez said he experienced his first panic attack.<\/p>\n

\u201cSitting in traffic, I had to call my wife, and I could barely talk,\u201d he recalled. \u201cI was like, \u2018Look, this is what happened. I don\u2019t know what\u2019s going on with my body. Maybe I\u2019m too old.\u2019 But just hearing her calm me down, I took a couple deep breaths and I was good to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hern\u00e1ndez said it hurt to sneeze or cough and, typical of the free spirit’s candor, he added, \u201cI didn’t poop for like six days after I got hurt.\u201d<\/p>\n

He played in five games at triple-A Oklahoma City, going 6 for 18 with a homer in a rehab stint.<\/p>\n

With Seattle starting three right-handers in the series, Hern\u00e1ndez was expected to come off the bench. Manager Dave Roberts expects him to play mostly third base and left field, although he could spell Andy Pages in centre<\/p>\n

\u201cExcited to get Kik\u00e9 back,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cWhen he came back a month ago or whenever it was, came out swinging the bat well.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his career, Hern\u00e1ndez is best known for his October offensive numbers that are better the regular season. He’s won three World Series rings with the Dodgers, who are going for baseball’s first three-peat since the New York Yankees won three consecutive championships from 1998-2000.<\/p>\n

He vows he won’t play scared after the injury.<\/p>\n

\u201cI only know one speed, and that\u2019s all out,\u201d he said. “I felt a little stiff by pretending to think about the injury. So the way that I am, I just play, and if it goes, it goes. But I can\u2019t change the way that I play because I don\u2019t know how to play any other way.<\/p>\n

The Dodgers are set to welcome back closer Edwin D\u00edaz on Wednesday after three months on the IL recovering from surgery for loose bodies in his pitching elbow.<\/p>\n

\u201cGetting him back in the mix is going to be fun for all of us,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cSo excited about seeing a team we haven\u2019t seen for quite some time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES \u2014 Kik\u00e9 Hern\u00e1ndez returned to the Los Angeles Dodgers on Tuesday, two months after being sidelined…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":830485,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,85],"class_list":["post-830484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830484","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=830484"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830484\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/830485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=830484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=830484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=830484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}