Kiké Hernandez enjoys October stage, pushes Dodgers to Division Series
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Juan Beltran, Contributor
- October 2, 2025
Kiké Hernandez erases disappointing regular season
LOS ANGELES – By his standards, Kiké Hernandez admittedly had a difficult regular season. Yet, as has been the case throughout his career, the Dodgers’ charismatic veteran made himself at home in the postseason.
It should have been no surprise that Kiké Hernandez was a key reason the Dodgers eliminated the Cincinnati Reds to advance to the Division Series.
Hernandez drove in the tying run in the bottom of the fourth and then scored the go-ahead run later in the inning on Miguel Rojas’ single to spark the comeback victory. The Dodgers never looked back in the 8-4 victory at Dodger Stadium to sweep the best-of-three NL Wild Card over the Cincinnati Reds.
‘October Kiké is something pretty special’
“Kiké is obviously an energy-giver,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “When he’s playing, playing well, guys feed off of that. Miggy (Rojas) is like that. (Teoscar Hernandez) is like that.
“But October Kiké is something pretty special. And the track record speaks for itself. Throughout history, he’s one of the best throughout history of the postseason.”
Kiké Hernandez, who hit .203 with a .255 on-base percentage in the regular season, went 2-for-5 with two runs and one RBI in Game 2. He finished the series with a .500 average while going 4-for-8. Yoshinobu Yamamoto earned the victory after limiting the Reds to two unearned runs on four hits and two walks with nine strikeouts over 6 2/3 innings.
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“I know they brought me here for these types of moments,” Kiké Hernandez said. “It sucks for 162 games it didn’t go well. But once we get here, it doesn’t really matter.
“The beautiful thing about the postseason is that once we get to the postseason, everything starts at zero and nothing really matters about the 162, because if you can have a bad year and you flip the script and you start over in the postseason, you have a good postseason, help the team win, we win it all, and nobody ever remembers what you did in the regular season. Everybody remembers what happened in the playoffs.”
The October script has usually been an exciting one for Kiké Hernandez. The two-time World Series champion is a career .236 hitter over his 12-year career with 130 home runs and 470 RBIs. In the postseason, however, he’s a career .285 hitter with 15 home runs and 36 RBIs.
Overcoming early error
The Reds took a 2-0 lead with the help of two unearned runs in the first inning. Teoscar Hernandez committed a rare error trying to catch what should have been an inning-ending fly ball to right from Austin Hays. Sal Stewart followed with a two-run single to right.
Mookie Betts cut the deficit in half with an RBI single to center. Max Muncy then led off the bottom of the fourth with a single. One out later, Kiké Hernandez hit an RBI single to center. Rojas then drove in Hernandez with a single to right to tie the score at 2.
“Kiké is the guy that’s going to give you the extra in this moment because he always wants it,” Rojas said. “He always wants it at this moment. He showed it tonight with a big double to put us right there to tie the game. Then he scored on my base hit. I’m happy to be part of his journey.”
The Dodgers added three more runs in the sixth. Shohei Ohtani drove in Kiké Hernandez with a single to right for the first run of the three-run rally. Betts followed with an RBI double to left. One out later, Teoscar Hernandez hit an RBI double to center.
“I think the thing is we’re getting closer to October,” Teoscar Hernandez said. “We know we cannot be making the mistakes that we’re making at that time. Concentration got bigger. Focus got bigger, and the little things come up
“I think that’s it. I think that’s what has been the key for us to be winning.”
Juan Beltran
Contributor
Juan Beltran, who immigrated to the United States from El Salvador at 5 years old, is an experienced broadcast journalist
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