Dodgers Interview: Kiké Hernández Keeps It Simple — and Delivers the Big Swing
SEATTLE — In a game defined by pitching precision and late-inning focus, Kiké Hernández supplied the exclamation point. His two-run double proved to be the difference in the Dodgers’ 5–3 win in Seattle, the kind of October-adjacent swing that flips a quiet night into a road victory—and reminds everyone why Hernández always seems to find the moment when the calendar tightens.
Hernández didn’t lean into mythmaking afterward. No “Mr. October” chest-thumping, just a nod to the thing hitters crave most: rhythm. “I’m just enjoying the last three starts, you know, consistent playing time,” he said, noting it’s the first time all season he’s started against three straight right-handers (outside of the brief stretch when Freddie Freeman was out). “It’s a little easier to keep your timing in check when you’re getting four ABs a day.” The double—punished to the gap with two aboard—looked like a hitter on time, on plane, and comfortable.
That comfort matters with the postseason starting in three days. Hernández framed it plainly: finish strong now, because October rewards whoever is hottest at the end. “It’s huge,” he said of carrying form into the bracket. He also tipped his cap to Seattle—“that’s a really good team over there”—and connected the weekend’s stakes to a bigger possibility. If both clubs make it all the way, head-to-head record and final marks mean the World Series could open at Dodger Stadium. “At least if we make it all the way to the World Series and we play them, it’s a good feeling knowing that the series starts at Dodger Stadium and not here.”
Hernández was equally candid about the Dodgers’ route into October. No bye this year, no week of sim games, no built-in lull to blame. “That was the narrative when this team lost back-to-back DS… that the bye week cooled us off,” he said. “Now we don’t have an excuse.” Instead, Los Angeles will roll straight from Game 162 into the Wild Card round after just one day off—an adjustment Hernández welcomes from the position-player perspective. Real at-bats beat simulated reps every time.
Who waits on Tuesday? The Mets or the Reds. Different threats, same bottom line. “Whoever we play, it’s a dangerous team in different ways,” Hernández said. “We can’t let our guard down against anybody.” The veteran utility man didn’t sugarcoat the road to this point, either: “We did it to ourselves. We were very inconsistent throughout the year and here we are. We’re going to start the playoffs and we just don’t know who we’re playing against.”
And yet, Hernández’s swing was the kind that makes inconsistency feel distant. It was an October swing, even if the date still reads September—a patient at-bat finished with authority, the sort of gap shot that turns traffic into runs and shoves momentum into the Dodgers’ dugout. He’s not promising heroics; he’s asking for at-bats and delivering when he gets them.
That’s the Kiké blueprint in a sentence. Keep the timing, stay ready for the next one, and when the game offers a hinge moment, kick the door. Saturday night, he did—again.
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