In October, Kiké Hernández is inevitable. Baseball fans across the country know it well as the longtime Los Angeles Dodger has been a fixture in the postseason for nearly a decade. He continued his trend of postseason heroism on October 6.
Chris Sale kept the Dodgers' bats relatively quiet through the first three innings of NLDS Game 3. They broke through on a single here and there, but Sale avoided early damage on the scoreboard. Then came playoff Hernández, who cracked a two-run bomb to deep left field to open the scoring. The Dodgers went on to win, 3-1, and they need just one more victory to advance to another NLCS.
Hernández's home run was the 17th in his postseason career, which is a wild feat. Hernández is now tied with Boston Red Sox legend and all-time clutch player David Ortiz in career postseason homers. He also tied Jim Thome and Aaron Judge.
Some of Hernández's playoff bombs came with the Red Sox in 2021, when they made an unexpected run to the ALCS. Hernández hit five home runs between the ALDS and ALCS. His highlights weren't limited to the longball, as walked the Red Sox off into the ALCS on a sac fly.
Kiké Hernández's NLDS Game 3 home run ties Red Sox legend David Ortiz, other sluggers with 17 career postseason bombs
Hernández isn't a star in the regular season and he carries a .235/.304/.402 slash line over his 13-year career. Something changes when the calendar flips to October. He's slashing .272/.338/.493 with 11 doubles, two triples, 17 home runs and 44 RBI in his postseason career.
Hernández has so many playoff home runs under his belt because he's played nearly his entire major league career with the Dodgers, who have made the playoffs every year since 2013. He's played in 25 postseason series, which gives him plenty of time to rack up October homers, but the dramatic difference in his offense from the regular season to the playoffs can't be understated.
Ortiz hit his 17 postseason home runs in 18 series — as expected, he slugged at a faster pace than Hernández. But no matter how it comes, tying Ortiz in any offensive statistic, especially in the playoffs when he was at his absolute best, is an incredible achievement.
The Dodgers aren't the No. 1 seed in the National League this year, but their combination of pitching and power in the lineup has proven impossible to beat in the last two years. Few teams, and certainl none in the American League, are a real threat to LA on its quest to three-peat. Hernández could soon overtake Ortiz on the playoff homer leaderboard.
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