Red Sox news: Kiké Hernández makes MLB postseason history in Game 1 of ALCS

By the third inning of the first game of the ALCS, Kiké Hernández had already come up clutch for the Red Sox offensively and defensively.

In the first inning, the leadoff man roped a leadoff single, though it was erased in a double play moments later.

Then, in the bottom of the second inning, Hernández bailed out Chris Sale, making a stunning dive-and-roll catch that instantly evoked Andrew Benintendi’s game-saving dive in the same ballpark, three ALCS prior.

In the top of the next inning, Hernández blasted a solo home run to tie the game 1-1 and put the Sox on the board. Statcast projected his third home run of the postseason went 448 feet.

Kiké Hernández is having a historic postseason for the Red Sox

In his next at-bat, Hernández doubled, making him 3-for-3 on the night and putting him a triple shy of hitting for the cycle, a feat only achieved in the postseason by former Red Sox utility-man Brock Holt in 2018. According to MLB’s Sarah Langs, Hernández’s 12th hit in his last four games is the most by any player in a four-game span in postseason history.

He made yet another game-saving catch to end the fifth inning and bail out Ryan Brasier.

After the Red Sox blew their 3-1 lead and fell behind 5-3, Hernández walloped his second home run of the night, another solo shot, but he couldn’t singlehandedly save the game, and the Sox dropped the opener 5-4.

Overall, Hernández is having an absolutely monstrous postseason. Last weekend, he made history during the ALDS by having a 5-for-5 game. Coming into the ALCS, he was hitting a David Ortiz-esque .435/.440/.826 with a 1.266 OPS, 10 hits, three doubles, two home runs, five runs scored, and six RBI through the first five games of the postseason.

Hernández has an abundance of October experience; Game 1 of the ALCS was his 64th career postseason game. That, coupled with his defensive versatility as a super-utility man, is one of the reasons the Red Sox signed him. That postseason experience did not include a strong track record against the Astros, though, and his home run tonight was his first extra-base hit against them in postseason play; by the end of the game, he had three.

Ironically, Hernández began his professional career with the Astros, who drafted him in the sixth round of the 2009 June draft. He made his big-league debut with the club in 2014 but was traded to the Miami Marlins after 24 games.

Since then, he has faced his former team in the postseason as a member of the Dodgers (2015-20) and will hopefully continue to give them hell in a Red Sox uniform.

In summation: