The Dodgers are just one win away from punching their ticket to the National League Championship Series, all thanks to some clutch long balls. On Tuesday night in Atlanta, homers from Kiké Hernández and Freddie Freeman were literally all the offense the Dodgers needed to seal a 3-1 Game 3 win. With Yoshinobu Yamamoto on the mound dealing, that “home run or bust” strategy worked out perfectly.
Kiké Hernández, October’s Own Aaron Judge
Let’s talk about Kiké Hernández for a second, because man, this guy is unreal in October. During the regular season, he’s been a slightly below league-average hitter over his 13-year career. But when the postseason rolls around? He turns into Aaron Judge, plain and simple. Judge, who’s been sidelined this postseason with an injury, has an .822 OPS and 17 homers in his playoff career. After launching a two-run shot off Chris Sale to get the scoring started on Tuesday, Hernández now *also* has 17 career postseason homers, to go with an .832 career postseason OPS.
Yeah, Hernández has played way more playoff games than Judge; Tuesday was his 94th with the Dodgers, more than any other player in franchise history. But this is exactly why he’s built his reputation. He just turns it on in October. He’s even talked about how he started using visualization after some early career playoff struggles, envisioning himself succeeding in every scenario before every playoff game since 2017. And it totally worked, starting with his three dingers in Game 5 of the 2017 NLCS. In the regular season, he homers roughly once every 28 at-bats. In the postseason? It’s once every 17. Seriously, among players with at least 100 career home runs (regular and postseason combined), Hernández is the *only* guy in MLB history with at least 10% of his career homers coming in the playoffs. This dude is built for October. Remember two years ago when he didn’t start the first three games of the NLDS against the Padres and the Dodgers were down 2-1? Manager Dave Roberts put him back in for elimination Games 4 and 5, and they won both, then Hernández started every game after that. Same story this year; not in the lineup for Games 1 and 2, but he got his chance and delivered.
Freeman Joins the Home Run History Books
Just when you thought Kiké’s homer was the big story, Freddie Freeman decided to flex. Hernández’s 17th career postseason home run matched Freeman for the 17th most in MLB history for about two minutes. Because two batters later, Freeman went deep himself off Chris Sale, hitting his 18th career playoff blast. That shot moved the first baseman into an eight-way tie for 10th all-time in playoff homers. Talk about a one-two punch! This Dodgers lineup is absolutely built on the long ball right now, and when they connect like that, it’s lights out.
So, the Dodgers are sitting pretty, just one win from advancing to the National League Championship Series. They’ve got a shot to close it out. All eyes are on the next game to see if they can finish the job and get back to the NLCS.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Fox Sports.
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