Kiké Hernández just dropped a two-run bomb on Chris Sale in Game 3 of the NL Division Series, giving the Dodgers a lead they never let go of in their 3-1 win over the Atlanta Braves. This dude, who’s no stranger to October heroics, absolutely delivered in his first start of these playoffs, putting Los Angeles up 2-1 in the best-of-five series. They’ve got a chance to punch their ticket to the National League Championship Series on Wednesday. Talk about clutch.
Kiké Dust Is Real, Y’all
Seriously, this guy lives for the postseason. Hernández, playing third base and batting ninth, took Braves ace Chris Sale deep in the fourth inning. It was a two-run shot that opened the scoring and completely flipped the script. He said he was just trying to avoid a double play with a runner on first and one out, wanting to get the lineup back to Mookie Betts. Sale threw a changeup for a ball on the first pitch, and Hernández just recognized the next one. He said his “eyes recognized, it popped, and lucky that (I) put a good swing on it.” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts knows it, too. He said they “needed a little bit of that Kiké dust.” The man is always prepared and thrives in these moments.
And the stats back it up, big time. That was Hernández’s 17th career postseason homer in 104 games. If you scale that over a full 162-game season, that’s a 26-home run pace, way higher than his career regular-season rate of 16 per 162 games. OptaStats even dropped a bomb: Hernández is the *only* player in MLB history with at least 10% of his career home runs coming in the postseason, minimum 100 total homers! Jose Altuve is next, which tells you the kind of company Kiké keeps in October. His career postseason OPS is a stellar .826, compared to .706 in the regular season. This dude just transforms when the calendar flips to October. He’s got 12 postseason dingers for the Dodgers alone, good for fourth in franchise history. He takes pride in it, but honestly, he said it’s “probably something that once I’m done playing, it’s going to be something that’s going to look back and be really proud of my career.” What a beast.
Sale’s Regret and a Long-Awaited Showdown
Chris Sale, man, you gotta feel for him. He went five innings, gave up three runs on seven hits, and he pretty much pinned the loss on “really only one pitch I would take back from that entire outing.” He felt he did what he could against the Dodgers’ lineup, but that one pitch to Hernández? “One swing changed the whole trajectory of that game,” he admitted. Ouch.
This wasn’t the first time Sale and Hernández faced off in the postseason, either. The last time was in the 2018 World Series, Game 5, when Sale struck out the side, including Hernández, to clinch the championship for Boston. Was this homer revenge? Hernández wasn’t having it. “Dude, I mean, that was eight years ago,” he said, joking that Sale made him, Justin Turner, and Manny Machado look like “Little Leaguers” back then. He clearly wasn’t dwelling on that old history.
So, the Dodgers are up 2-1 and have a chance to advance to the NLCS on Wednesday. You know they’ll be fired up, and after a performance like that, Hernández is gonna be locked in again. Can they close it out? We’ll find out soon enough.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Yahoo Sports.
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