LOS ANGELES -- Kiké Hernández admitted that he doesn’t like to reflect too much at this point in his career; there will be time for that after he retires. But the veteran utilityman was caught off guard ahead of Game 4 of the National League Championship Series when he found out he was closing in on Justin Turner’s franchise record of 86 postseason games played in a Dodgers uniform.
Hernández, currently sitting at 85 games, will tie Turner with Game 1 of the World Series on Friday. After that, he’ll need just one more appearance in this year’s Fall Classic to surpass his former teammate.
“Humbled, fortunate,” Hernández said last Friday. “This is not just any franchise, man. This is the L.A. Dodgers. They've been around for a long time, and they have a lot of history. And for a guy like me from Puerto Rico, [who] kind of swam against the current my entire life, to be sitting in this position is pretty special.”
It’s a milestone that Hernández never even dreamed of.
Ahead of this year’s postseason, Hernández gave some insight into his mentality as the calendar flipped to October, which basically boiled down to taking things one day at a time.
“The reality is, you're only living today,” he said. “And what's done yesterday is already paid for, it's already done. Nothing matters but today. … In the postseason, I feel like you never know what pitch will win you a game. That mindset of taking it one day at a time, one pitch at a time, is what allows me to quiet the noise and do what I have to do.”
As he closes in on the record, here’s a look back at some of the most memorable postseason moments in Dodger blue for “October Kiké.”
1) 2017 NLCS Game 5
The legend of October Kiké may have been born on this day, when he helped the Dodgers secure their first NL pennant since 1988 with a three-homer, seven-RBI performance in their 11-1 win over the Cubs in Chicago.
Hernández led off the top of the second inning, stepping into the batter’s box with a one-run lead already in hand. He jumped on a first-pitch sinker from Cubs starter Jose Quintana, launching it into the Wrigley Field basket in straightaway center field to double the Dodgers’ early lead.
He broke the game open one inning later. With the bases loaded, Hernández was aggressive again on the first pitch -- this time a hanging slider from Héctor Rondón -- and smoked a line drive deep to right-center field for a grand slam to give the Dodgers a commanding 7-0 lead.
The exclamation point came in the ninth inning when Hernández knocked a two-run shot, his third of the game. He looked back toward the Dodgers’ dugout in disbelief as he rounded first base, a ticket to the World Series all but punched already.
2) 2020 NLCS Game 7
Game 7 of the 2020 NLCS between the Dodgers and Braves was somewhat of a microcosm of the series as a whole. Down 3-1 in the COVID-19 bubble in Arlington, the Dodgers clawed their way back into the series, rattling off back-to-back wins to force the decisive seventh game.
The Braves jumped out to an early two-run lead before the Dodgers would tie things up in the third inning. Atlanta responded immediately with another run, setting the stage for Hernández.
Leading off the bottom of the sixth, Hernández worked a long at-bat against A.J. Minter, fouling off three pitches in a row. On the eighth pitch, Minter threw a 97.3 mph fastball over the heart of the plate. Hernández crushed it 424 feet to left-center, ricocheting off the second deck at Globe Life Field to tie the game once again.
Cody Bellinger would follow him up in the seventh with the go-ahead homer to send the Dodgers back to the World Series en route to their first championship in 32 years.
3) 2024 NLDS Game 5
Hernández wasted no time as the Dodgers completed a comeback from the verge of elimination, holding the Padres scoreless over 24 innings across the final three games of the NLDS.
Stepping into the batter’s box after a double play, Hernández immediately took the momentum back. He ambushed Yu Darvish with two outs in the bottom of the second inning, swinging on a first-pitch fastball and sending it halfway up the Left Field Pavilion at Dodger Stadium for a 428-foot solo home run.
That would end up being enough, although Teoscar Hernández added one more for good measure in the seventh to secure a 2-0 win to send the Dodgers to the NLCS.
4) 2024 NLCS Game 3
The Mets took Game 2 in L.A. to steal home-field advantage and send the series back to New York, 1-1. In Game 3, the Dodgers jumped out to a two-run lead in the second inning, which Hernández built on with another big swing in the top of the sixth.
Tommy Edman reached on a single with two outs, and later advanced to second on a balk. Hernández proceeded to drive a splitter over the left-field wall at Citi Field to put the Dodgers up, 4-0. They would go on to win Game 3 in an eight-run blowout, and the series in six games before beating the Yankees in five games for the Dodgers’ second World Series title in the last five years.