Dodgers’ Kiké Hernández Continues Clutch Playoff Career in Game 5 of NLDS

Kiké Hernández continued to show he is built for October baseball after hitting a 428-foot homer off Padres right-hander Yu Darvish in the second inning of Game 5 of the National League Division Series.

It ain’t a Kiké Hernández home run without the belt bump fr ??

Via @MLBONFOX pic.twitter.com/60X9BAadqY

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— Dodgers Nation (@DodgersNation) October 12, 2024

The solo home run from Hernández put the Dodgers up 1-0 in the win-or-go-home matchup with San Diego. It also marked Hernández’s fourteenth home run of his postseason career.

“I think that certain players want the big moment, the big stage, the big spotlight. Kiké has done it time and time again,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told Ken Rosenthal on the Fox game cast. 

Hernández’s home run comes as no surprise given his track record in the playoffs. Additionally, his comments ahead of Game 5 reflected his eagerness to make an impact in the matchup.

“There’s no tomorrow, we got to find a way to win today and win today only,” Hernández said. “I mean, the way I see it is these types of games are the ones we’ve been dreaming of since we were little kids. We didn’t come here to within the NL West; we came to win the World Series.

“To do that, we’ve got to do that or we go home and we think about it all offseason and this team gets to Spring Training to think about failures from years past,” Hernández continued. “We’re not worried about anything else other than winning tonight. And there’s 26-plus people in our clubhouse that believe in each other and have the right mindset to go out there tonight and do whatever it takes to win tonight.”

As the game heads into the fifth inning, only Hernández has scored. Dodgers are up 1-0.

Photo Credit: Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports

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