Quique Hernandez even checked to see if Fox's postgame interview was being broadcast live.
The answer — this was, of course, right after the Dodgers beat the Padres in Game 5 of the National League — Hernandez's words remained the same.
When asked what's different about this Dodgers team, Hernandez pauses, confirms it's live, and then says matter-of-factly, “The fact that we don't play AF.”
Hernandez's postgame interview showed him emerging as the hero of the solo home run that would ultimately become the game-winner, in a lineup that also featured Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, and Freddie Freeman, who were well above the No. 7 spot in the batting order. This was followed by the decisive hit. A winning explosion when everything fell into place after the seventh inning.
Hernandez, who was at one point a target of the Yankees during the offseason, signed a new contract with the Dodgers, a team he spent more than seven years with and won the World Series during the condensed 2020 season. — and hit .229. OPS .654 in the regular season.
“The main reason is [I signed] If you can at least guarantee starting against left-handed pitchers at the beginning of the year, anything can happen from there,” said Hernandez, who chose the Dodgers over the Yankees during an appearance on “Foul Territory” in February. talked about it. . “The Yankees have a very good batting lineup, just like the Dodgers, but they have a lot of right-handed hitters, and the left-handed hitters are not platoon players. So the only way I can get into the lineup is give guys a break. Either that or in case someone got hurt.”
In the NLDS series against the Padres, he did not start until Game 4, when he had two hits and one RBI in an 8-0 victory.
And on a night when the utility man played both third base and center field, Hernandez hit Yu Darvish's four-seam fastball 428 feet over the left-field fence to give the Dodgers the lead, and Teoscar Hernandez doubled in the seventh inning. With his own solo home run.
And against a Padres batting lineup that was scoreless until the final 24 innings of the series, those two runs were ultimately more than enough to secure a spot in the National League CS for the first time since 2021 — against the Mets. Game 1 is scheduled for Sunday in Los Angeles.
