For Kike ErnandesThe regular season is more than a six-month warm-up. Real Baseball is played when the evening air becomes fresh and the leaves begin to change.
And when the summer turns to the fall, few players intensified more than Ernandez, who had two blows, scored two runs and went to another environment, which led to the return of the Dodger. It ended in victory 8-4 Above the cincinati red and waving their series of wild cards of the National League.
This sends the team to the best of five Division series with Philliswhich begins on Saturday in Philadelphia.
“October Kike is something special”, Manager Dodger Dave Roberts said. “And the track record speaks for itself. He is one of the best throughout the history of the post -zon. ”
This is the reputation that he earned.
Career .236 in the regular season, Ernandes hit .286 in 88 games postsesonThis year, it reduced 0.203/.255/. DODERS With three scored runs and took the second place from the flour of Betts with four blows. He also made a magnificent catch on his shoulder, participating in the warning in the first Inning environment.
“Some guys are built at this moment. He is definitely one of them, ”said the third man from the bottom Max MansiStanding in the middle of a cage for Dodgex Vatin during the celebration of the game, his blue T -shirt is saturated in champagne, when the teammate poured beer over his head.
Ernandez, dressed in glasses, but not a shirt, briefly appeared at the party with a victory, but left to celebrate with his family before champagne and beer began puddles on a plastic film that covered the floor.
His teammates were too happy to talk about him in his absence.
“He is a guy who is not shy since the moment,” said Infielder Miguel Rohas. “I feel that the regular season is not enough for him.”
Rohas said that he found out that from first -hand after joining the dodge in 2023. Although the playing of the play -off the team was brief, Ernandez headed the team with two ICR and was the second in hits and medium.
“I saw it on TV earlier. But when I got here, I saw that it was real, ”he said. “He always wanted a moment, and he showed him tonight with a big double to tie the game.”
This happened with one in the fourth, when his linear riding the center of the field scored Mansi from the first to connect the score, 2-2. After four steps, he scored on the single, Rohas, putting forward the Dodgex forward to stay.
But Ernandez was not finished. Two feeds later he left Karakul up the line of the third base, which was distorted before she hit the bag for one, starting a rally with four runs, which removed the game. The lower third of the Dodger line – Hernández, Rojas and Ben Rorrevedt Catcher are united by six for 12 with five runs and two ICR.
“Kike is Kike”, outfielder Theskar Ernandes It is said over the noise of the celebration. “This is the guy you get when October begins.”
Before that? Not so much. But for Ernandez, the post -zon became the time of ransom.
“I know that they brought me here for such moments,” he said to the game on Wednesday.
“The beautiful thing in the postsesone is that as soon as we reach the postseson, it all starts to zero. You may have a bad year, and you will turn the script, and you start all over in the postson. You have a good postsezon, help the team win, and no one will ever remember what you did in the usual season. ”
The 34 -year -old Ernandez owes most of his autumn heroics just the opportunity to play on the largest scene of sports. In the dozen seasons of the Premier League, he went to the playoffs 10 times, playing the 21 post-zone series with Dodgers and Boston Red Sox and winning two World Series rings.
“I was happy to be in the right team at the right time,” he said. “To be a good player of the postseson is a kind of individual thing, but not quite. You are in a team that does not go into the play -off, you cannot be a post -zone player.
“I am just in very good teams, and I was lucky to get a lot of chances.”
With his performance on Wednesday, he assured himself at least three chances in the division of the division with Phillis. And Rohas expects that he will fully use the advantages.
“He always wants a moment, and he wants to be there,” he said. “I study with him every day. He is the most prepared guy with whom I played when I played. ”
Especially in October.
