ATLANTA –– Seemingly every October, the same question arises.
asserted
question → arise → ?
Over the years, Kiké Hernández has supplied a wide range of answers.
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Hernández → supply → answers
Sometimes, it’s a simple joke: “I like Halloween,” he quipped two years ago.
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he → ’ → Halloween
Others, it’s a more introspective –– albeit, self-deprecating –– response: “My brain’s all over the place, man,” he said before Game 7 of last year’s World Series.
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he → ’ → Series
“I got really bad ADHD.”
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I → get → ADHD
Usually, however, the explanation boils down to one simple factor, having to do with focus and fearlessness in the highest-pressure of situations.
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explanation → boil → situations
“It’s almost like when you’re in school and you have a project for two months, and then you leave it for the last day,” he said this time a year ago.
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he → ’ → day
“That’s kind of a similar way [it works in the playoffs].
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it → ’ → playoffs
I’m able to stay in the moment and, like, stay really, really focused.
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I → ’m → moment
In Game 3 of the National League Division Series on Tuesday night, that mentality paid off with more postseason heroics yet again.
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mentality → pay → heroics
As usual, the Dodgers deployed Hernández like an ace up their sleeve, inserting him into the starting lineup to face star Braves pitcher Chris Sale with the best-of-five series knotted at one game apiece.
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series → deploy → game
And, as usual, Hernández delivered, producing the decisive swing on a two-run homer in the fourth inning of the Dodgers’ 3-1 win at Truist Park.
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Hernández → deliver → Park
“It’s something I take a lot of pride in, but don’t really think about it too much,” Hernández said.
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Hernández → ’ → it
“It’s something that, once I’m done playing, I’m going to look back on and be really proud of, because the way my career has gone, in terms of finding myself each and every year in October.
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career → ’ → October
Indeed, Hernández has a way of looking –– and getting –– lost in the regular season, especially in recent years while being relegated to a part-time spot on the Dodgers’ bench.
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Hernández → have → bench
This season, the 35-year-old appeared in just 41 regular season games, getting less than 100 total plate appearances because of elbow and oblique injuries, but also a loaded Dodgers roster that leaves at-bats at a premium for fringe players like him.
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that → appear → him
It didn’t help that he hit only .222, lowering his career regular-season average to .235 to go along with a .706 OPS (a shade under league-average production when measured by OPS+).
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he → help → OPS+
Entering this October, he had no clear pathway to regular playing time, either, with the Dodgers boasting entrenched regulars at all nine positions.
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Dodgers → enter → positions
Since rejoining the Dodgers as a trade deadline acquisition in 2023, the utilityman has come to accept that “my role is not to necessarily be in there all year or every day.”
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role → rejoin → 2023
He knew that, at some point, he would be summoned to provide a boost for the two-time defending champions.
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he → know → champions
“It would have been nice to get a little bit of a warm-up before [having to face] Chris Sale,” he joked.
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he → get → up
“But I’m just glad I’m here talking about something positive and not something negative.
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I → ’m → something
Rare is it, of course, that Hernández doesn’t make a positive impact when called upon.
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make → make → impact
At this point, he has turned majestic playoff performances into an almost annual tradition.
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he → turn → tradition
And that doesn’t even include what he did for the Boston Red Sox during their run to the ALCS in 2021, when he batted .408 with five home runs during his one postseason campaign away from Los Angeles.
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he → include → Angeles
“He’s a big-time player,” manager Dave Roberts said.
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Roberts → ’ → ?
“He’s always prepared.
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He → ’ → ?
He loves moments like this.
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He → love → this
He has a way to lock in.”
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He → have → way
Thus, in the run-up to a pivotal Game 3 on Tuesday night, and in the face of a daunting task against the Braves’ left-handed ace in Sale, Roberts turned to Hernández to give the offense some “added intensity, urgency,” starting him at third base in place of the left-handed-hitting Max Muncy.
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Roberts → turn → Muncy
“We needed a little bit of that Kiké dust,” Roberts said.
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Roberts → need → dust
And, surprise, surprise — he came through once again.
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he → come → ?
After the Dodgers squandered several early chances against Sale, Hernández stepped up with one on and one out in the fourth inning, hoping to simply “grind out the at-bat” and keep stressing Sale’s climbing pitch count.
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Hernández → squander → count
But when the former Cy Young Award winner tried to sneak back-to-back changeups by him, Hernández was ready for it.
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Hernández → try → it
“He doubled up on the changeup,” Hernández said.
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Hernández → double → changeup
“My eyes recognized it.”
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eyes → recognize → it
With a vicious swing that sent the ball screaming off his bat at 106.8 mph, Hernández launched a 406-foot drive deep into the left-field seats, breaking open what had been a scoreless pitchers’ duel previously.
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what → send → seats
The scene that followed was triumphantly familiar, with Hernández pounding his chest and screaming his lungs out as his Dodgers teammates erupted in the dugout down the third-base line.
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teammates → follow → line
The 2-0 lead would last, as well, thanks to seven dominant innings from Yoshinobu Yamamoto –– who, while facing a jam in the fifth, also got a quick pep talk from Hernández instilling him with confidence and featuring a “dirty word,” the pitcher joked –– that propelled the Dodgers to a two-games-to-one series lead.
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that → last → lead
“He converts himself into this kind of monster when it comes to th playoffs, and when it matters the most,” said teammate Miguel Rojas, another veteran role player who has drawn so much inspiration from Hernández’s repeated heroics that he texted him last week to tell him “how much I appreciate what he taught me without even telling me how to do it.”
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he → convert → it
…and 13 more, not listed.
The Aporia
