- Enrique Hernandez ranks 10th in MLB history with 96 postseason appearances.
- Hernandez was on the Dodgers teams that won the 2020 and 2024 World Series.
- Hernandez and the Dodgers are in the World Series for the fifth time in nine years.
TORONTO – There’s no official birthdate when Playoff Kiké came into this world. But there’s a very easily identifiable moment when it happened.
There’s no logical reason why Playoff Kiké came into this world. But the man himself has a really good idea why it happened.
It is October, and the Los Angeles Dodgers are in the World Series, and Kiké Hernández is striking baseballs with authority once again, a phenomenon that defies all logic and statistical trends amassed over a significant sample size.
See, Hernández is back in the Fall Classic for the fifth time and has 11 hits in 36 at-bats in the Dodgers’ drive toward consecutive world championships. And in Game 1 of this World Series Oct. 24, he will equal Justin Turner’s record of playoff games played for the Dodgers – a franchise second only to the New York Yankees in playoff contests.
Let’s just get this out there: Hernández is a lifetime .236 hitter, with a lifetime adjusted OPS of 91, both metrics suggesting he’s a below-average player.
But in the postseason? Well, this restless and goofy and adrenaline-seeking character might as well consider the playoff opener his personal Groundhog Day, waking up, seeing his shadow in the Chavez Ravine sunlight and banging out base hits like Dodger Dogs coming off the conveyor belt.
“These are the games I live for,” Hernández says the day before Game 1. “In life, you get put on the planet to do certain things.
“And for me, I feel like I was put on this planet to love my family, make people laugh and play October baseball.”
Mission most certainly accomplished. Yet Hernández can trace his playoff outbursts to a specific, and more serious point in time.
In 2017, he was in his first full season with the Dodgers, his track record with them at that point – a .234 average, a .310 OBP from a light-hitting utilityman – consistent with his career numbers.
But it was a unique and sobering year, for better and worse.
Hernández’s pride swelled when he represented Puerto Rico in the World Baseball Classic, as the Boricuas made all the way to the finals before losing to Team USA.
Then the regular season unfolded, and one of the greatest Dodger teams of this 13-year playoff run coalesced, winning 104 games. Yet as the season wound down, Hurricane Maria ravaged Puerto Rico, displacing 73,000 on the island and causing an estimated $92 billion in damage.
“I didn’t have a great year on a personal level,” says Hernández, “but then at the end of the regular season we had that big hurricane back home. It put life into perspective for me. And baseball became a little more of a game than it was before that.
“And that year, I felt like dedicating that postseason to my family, my people in need back home. Something came out in me that – I don’t know how to explain it – but October starts, and for me, if your numbers aren’t there in the regular season but you go out in the postseason and help your team win, in my eyes that’s having a good year.”
And goodness, was that a good year.
Hernández hatched his postseason legend with a three-home run performance in Game 5 of the NLCS at Wrigley Field, vanquishing the defending champion Cubs and punching the Dodgers’ ticket to their first World Series since 1988.
It wasn’t his first playoff rodeo, but it was a harbinger.
Kiké Hernández stats stun in October
Nearly a decade later, these are Hernández’s playoff totals: A .282 average, a .356 on-base percentage, .863 OPS and 15 home runs in 299 plate appearances.
To put that power in perspective, only twice has Hernández topped 20 homers in a season and he needed 462 plate appearances to hit 21 in 2018, and 585 to hit 20 in 2021.
All of that playoff damage save for 11 games with Boston in 2021 has come on the Dodgers’ behalf. It’s not the sight of playoff bunting on the upper deck; it’s simply in the blood.
“For me, it’s very hard to feel adrenaline in the regular season and easier in the postseason,” he says. “I’ve failed so much in the regular season throughout my career, that when it comes to playoff time I feel like I have absolutely nothing to lose.
“At times, the hardest thing to do in this game is accept failure. And not be afraid of it and I’m guilty of falling for it during the regular season. But once the playoffs come, all that matters is winning.
“That intensity and added focus for me, and the electricity and atmosphere – a lot of that has to do with adrenaline.”
While the rep is by now well-earned, it can still slip under the radar.
The Dodgers’ 2024 championship was nailed down in Game 5, when they erupted for five runs in the fifth inning and two more in the eighth, stunning New York at Yankee Stadium.
While the Yankees’ fielding foibles and heroics from Teoscar Hernández commanded the spotlight, those rallies emanated from a different source: Leadoff singles by Kiké Hernández, off Gerrit Cole in the fifth and Tommy Kahnle in the eighth.
“He just continues to rise to the occasion,” says Dodgers legend Clayton Kershaw, the left-hander who will retire after this World Series. “He’s always very prepared – you can count on Kiké have a plan, to play great defense.
“I’ve always been thankful for Kiké. You always want him on your team, for sure.”
Los Angeles is ‘second home’ for Kiké Hernández
When Chase Utley finished his career with the Dodgers, Hernández dubbed him “Dad,” both in deference and accurately describing his role with the club. Now, Kershaw sees a lot of Utley in Hernández, with his willingness to help younger players and pick up the finer points of the game, always.
At this point, it almost seems like Hernández, 34, has an open invitation to spring training at Camelback Ranch. Yet nothing is forever, and Hernández has seen versatile stalwarts like Chris Taylor move on.
He gets emotional knowing it’s Turner, a mentor and friend, whose Dodgers playoff game record he’ll break, and sanguine enough to know that superstars like Mookie Betts or Shohei Ohtani will someday surpass him.
But he remains productive, and, at this time of year, indispensable. And though Puerto Rico will always be home, Hernández realizes he’s built another one in Los Angeles.
Even if that’s due largely to his exploits just one month out of the year.
“It’s my second home. It means the world to me,” he says. “It’s been a long relationship but the way the fans have embraced me since Day 1 has made the transition a lot better. From having uncertainty where you fit on the roster to wondering whether or not you’re going to stick around in the big leagues to quickly becoming one of the fan favorites.
“I haven’t had the greatest of careers when you’re talking about regular season. But they still cheer on me and love on me like I was Shohei.
“That speaks volumes. And that is something I will never take for granted.”