Dodgers News: Kiké Hernandez Reveals Secret To Being So Good in the Postseason
Sometimes there comes a player who just thrives on pressure.
Los Angeles Dodgers utility man Kike Hernández is one of those players and his teammates have given up on trying to explain it.
“I don’t know. I’m watching it the same way you are,” Betts said after Hernández homered in Game 3 of the NLCS.
“There’s certain guys,” said Max Muncy, “that are able to perform in certain moments, and he’s definitely one of them. He’s always been one of them. We have a lot of guys on this team who fit that category, but Kiké is special in October and that’s why you have him on this team. That’s why he’s here. That’s why he’s in the lineup. You expect him to do stuff, and he goes out and does it.”
Hernández launched a towering two-run shot to left field in the sixth inning on Wednesday night off a splitter from Mets reliever Reed Garrett. Nobody had hit a home run off a Garrett splitter in 289 tries.
So, how did Hernández do it?
“I’ve talked about this a lot. I do a lot of visualization at night, the night before the games, and I try to put myself in every position, every situation that you can come up with during the game,” Hernández said. “I visualize myself having success over and over against their entire pitching staff and things like that.
“But also the fact that I’ve had a pretty good track record in October. I can’t help it but bring me confidence. And it just makes you believe that you take your game to another level. I try to take it one game at a time, and I’m glad that I was able to contribute to the win tonight.”
The confidence Hernández brings reflects in his postseason statistics. In the regular season, he homered once every 29.1 at-bats. In the postseason, he improves to once every 13.3 at-bats. In the postseason, 26.8 percent of his hits are home runs, compared to 14.5 percent in the regular season.
“When Kiké hit the home run, you could hear a pin drop in the stadium,” Muncy said. “When you’re on the road, anything you can do to take the energy out of the stadium is gigantic. That’s definitely what happened tonight.”
Photo Credit: Brad Penner-Imagn Images
