Kiké Hernández says the Red Sox are ready for the Yankees
We’re a few hours away from the most important game of the Red Sox season. You win, and you’re into the ALDS. You lose, and it’s a long cold winter on your horizon. This past weekend, the teams that were in the AL Wild Card race were allowed to choose their fate with Boston choosing Fenway Park and the Yankees calling out their chief rival. Both teams got what they wanted but that move by New York didn’t sit well with Kiké Hernández.
As the Wild Card Game looms over Fenway Park we’re in the midst of media availability and the Red Sox utilityman is at the table. While he covered a myriad of topics from being moved out of the lead-off spot to J.D. Martinez being injured, the subject of the Yankees decision came up and Kiké didn’t miss his shot.
"“They wanted us. They got us. Win or go home.” – Kiké Hernández"
Kiké Hernández on the Yankees having made the choice, in case of a four-way tie, to play the Sox in Boston instead of the Jays in Toronto: ‘We knew about it.’ Said it was understandable given the late-season sweep here but added: ‘They wanted us. They got us. Win or go home.’
— Alex Speier (@alexspeier) October 5, 2021
I absolutely love that line from Kiké and it’s the exact mentality I want from this team going into tonight’s game. How could a team that lost the season series against this Red Sox side have the stones to then call them out. Yeah, they may have the hot hand against Boston right now, but the rest of the campaign would say otherwise.
Oh, and remember the last time the Bombers called out the Sox? They got sent packing in four games to the shadow realm while J.D., AC, and the boys were raising the Commissioner’s Trophy.
But go ahead and talk all the smack you want, at the end of the day you were a World Series favorite, we were supposed to finish fourth, and yet, we ended with the exact same record.
Nobody knows how tonight will go but having the squad fired up that the guys in the other clubhouse feel like they’re inferior also has me ready to go. The Red Sox were the best home team this season with a .281/.350/.481 slash with an average of 5.8 runs scored and a 49-32 record at Fenway. Bring it on, fellas, you’re going to be walking right into the lion’s den.
I think the best part of it being Kiké that addressed New York picking Boston for the Wild Card Game is the fact that he’s been dominant against Gerrit Cole this season. Hernández has a .455/.571/.909 line against the Yankee ace in 2021 and has been a thorn in the overpaid pitcher’s side all season long.
I know BSI’s Gabrielle Starr is a bit wary of Cora moving Kiké to the second spot in the order behind Kyle Schwarber but I absolutely love it. With those kinds of numbers, I want him to get as many chances as humanly possible to be in the batter’s box with runners on base.
Add in Schwarber’s love of taking walks and the equation just works itself out perfectly in my eyes. Now you have my guy all jacked up on bulletin board material and Mountain Dew? Oh buddy, LET’S GET WILD.
Tonight is the night, it all comes down to this. One game to decide an entire season’s worth of drama. “The Rivalry” will once again take center stage in the postseason but this time the intensity will be off the charts. The Yankees wanted the Red Sox because they feel Boston is weak right now but they’re in for a rude awakening. Hernández couldn’t have said it any better, “They wanted us, they got us.”