LOS ANGELES — After a preview in September, Teoscar Hernandez demonstrated that he’s ready to have his normal October.
A few months ago it looked bleak for the Dodgers outfielder, who came back from a hamstring injury to a summer of struggles.
A switch flipped in September, and he carried that into his first game of October, with a two-run homer to spark the Dodgers to a 5-3 victory over the Atlanta Braves in Game 1 of the National League Division Series.
“It just built the confidence,” Hernandez said of the month leading up to Saturday’s performance. “Obviously, I know what I’m capable of. It was just a matter of time. The work that I was putting in before September, all the routines, all the extra work that I was doing, it was about time to have those successes.”
Hernandez hit .212 with a .592 OPS in the 49 games immediately after returning from his hamstring injury, a stretch that had Dodgers manager Dave Roberts publicly talking about platooning him. In September, though, Hernandez hit .341 with a .965 OPS.
In his second plate appearance of October, he stepped up with the game scoreless in the fourth inning. The Dodgers had been blanked for three innings by Braves left-hander Dylan Dodd, who got the ball first in a bullpen game.
Right-hander Victor Mederos followed Dodd to the mound, and he issued a one-out, four-pitch walk to Freddie Freeman. Three pitches later, he threw a 92 mph cutter over the middle of the plate, and Hernandez did what a major league hitter is supposed to do.
He hammered it some 431 feet into the left-field bleachers for a two-run homer. Hernandez stood at the plate and admired the arcing drive before hurling his bat almost all the way into the Dodgers’ dugout.
The euphoria of those moments have always driven Hernandez, with little regard for the downside that can come in those spots.
“I think Teo is good in big moments because he’s not afraid to fail,” Roberts said. “I think that he has a short memory, in the sense of if some something doesn’t go well, he has a way to just kind of reset, recalibrate. And I think he just focuses a little bit more.”
Hernandez agreed with Roberts’ assessment of why he’s been so good in those moments.
“I don’t care if I strike out in big situations,” Hernandez said. “I always want to be the guy to be in those moments. I worked really hard for it. I think the bigger the moment, the more focused I get, just trying to put together a good at-bat for the team. Hopefully, I get a good pitch to hit, just trying to put a good swing.”
Hernandez, 33, has now hit nine homers in 34 postseason games with the Dodgers, with an .809 OPS. His regular-season OPS in those three seasons is .784.
He hit five homers in the postseason last year, helping the team to its second straight World Series title.
The year before, he hit a grand slam in a Game 3 loss to the Padres in the NLDS, and he drove in two runs in the World Series-clinching victory over the New York Yankees.
When Hernandez connected on his no-doubt homer on Saturday, the ballpark exploded. Hernandez rewarded all the fans who had braved the 100-degree heat, and who had stuck with him when he was cold.
“It feels good to have the support from them,” he said, “even though I had a really, really tough regular season, until September.”