TORONTO — On the afternoon of an elimination game, Teoscar Hernández met with reporters in the Dodgers’ press availability time. He talked about teammates, about focus, and about trusting the work that got the Dodgers here.
He started with Andy Pages, who’s been struggling mightiliy in the postseason, landing him on the bench. “I try to talk to him every day,” Hernández said. “It’s hard when you want to help the team and everything you do is not happening, especially when you’re a rookie and had a really good regular season. It feels like you’re not helping, and the team is in this situation. He’s not able to do anything positive for the team, and it’s hard. But not only me, the other guys are there to give the support he needs to get through this.”
Asked about his own October, he pushed away any talk of pressure. “I don’t really feel pressure at all,” he said. “I’m just here to do my job, focus on the things I can do to help the team, not thinking about what other people say about me or don’t say about me.”
For tonight, his approach is familiar. “It’s the same thing I always think about,” he said. “Go there and have the best at-bat I can give my team, try to get on base, try to do damage early in the game, try to put pressure any way possible, and do my part. The things I know I can do to help this team.”
The off day mattered, but only as a reset. “At this point your body is a little beat up,” he said. “Once you get to the field you don’t think about being tired or something that is tight or hurting. It’s more like what can I do today, positive, to win a ballgame. We’re not thinking about being tired or the trip. It’s the things we can do on the field.”
He was asked about Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and what has changed since they were teammates. “The only difference I see is he understands now that he has to be the leader of that group,” Hernández said. “He has to do things and then the team will follow him. That’s the way everybody saw him from the first day he got into the league. I always told him he’s the face of that organization and he has to be a leader for the group.”
Pressed on why it clicked for Guerrero, Hernández pointed to team growth. “They were in first place almost the whole season,” he said. “They understand what they can do as a team. That was the key for him to get past the regular player he was before and take the pride and the position as a leader.”
Confidence inside the Dodgers room has not wavered. “We feel really confident about our team,” he said in English, and then again for Spanish-language media. “This is not the first time we’re facing an elimination game. We did it last year. We did it a lot of times in the regular season when we weren’t playing our best and then we won three, four in a row. This is one more. Think about today, try to win, and then take care of the game tomorrow if we win today.”
He also described how Toronto has changed since his seasons there. “In the past the players didn’t understand the role they had on a team,” Hernández said. “That’s why the Blue Jays of 2025 are really good, because everybody understands what they have to do and their part as an individual to help the team. Before, guys didn’t understand their role or what they could do to help in those situations. The players they have right now know what they have to do and they’re not thinking about anything else besides the thing they know they have to do to help the team.”
The bigger the moment, the more the Dodgers need a collective plan at the plate. Hernández kept coming back to that. “Everything has to go perfect for us to pull this off,” he said. “We have talent and really good players, but in situations like this you have to do the little things to win a ballgame like this. Concentrate on the things you can do as a player and the things you can do to help the team.”
That means team at-bats. “What makes us really good is not only hitting the ball for power,” he said. “It’s taking good at-bats, getting on base, taking walks, taking one at-bat of eight pitches, seven pitches, to make the pitcher work, and trusting the other guys behind you. That’s going to be the key for us to be able to win this game tonight.”
Where to land between too passive and too aggressive has been the ongoing riddle. Hernández leaned on the times it worked. “Think about the game plan we used when we had success and put that together,” he said. “Get a plan, execute the plan at one hundred percent. Not being afraid of taking one pitch or hitting with two strikes or choking up the bat, whatever it takes. In the past we have succeeded with it. Trust it and go forward.”
He was even asked about music. The answer fit his tone all day. “I don’t usually do loud music,” he said. “For me it’s more relaxed time. I listen to Christian music. That makes my mind and my head calm so I can be ready for the game.”
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