? la Babe, Kiké blasts off with postseason HR No. 15

NEW YORK -- Kiké Hernández changed his Dodger Stadium walkup music to Bad Bunny’s “Mr. October” when the calendar flipped, and it seems well within his right. How else to explain how a player who has built a nice career as a utility man annually transforms into an October monster -- one who now stands tied in postseason home runs with Babe Ruth?

Dodgers superstar Mookie Betts has given up trying to explain it.

“I don’t know. I’m watching it the same way you are,” Betts said after Hernández belted yet another big home run in yet another Dodgers postseason win, this an 8-0 triumph over the Mets in Game 3 of the National League Championship Series at Citi Field.

“There’s certain guys,” said another Dodger, Max Muncy, “that are able to perform in certain moments, and he’s definitely one of them. He’s always been one of them. We have a lot of guys on this team who fit that category, but Kiké is special in October and that’s why you have him on this team. That’s why he’s here. That’s why he’s in the lineup. You expect him to do stuff, and he goes out and does it.”

Before Shohei Ohtani hit a mammoth home run in the eighth inning that continued his incredible run of success with runners in scoring position, and before Muncy went deep in the ninth to tie Corey Seager and Justin Turner for the most postseason home runs as a Dodger in franchise history, Hernández delivered arguably the biggest hit of the night to turn a two-run lead into a four-run cushion.

For another hitter, it might have seemed an unlikely spot. Fly balls hit to left field on Wednesday night were knocked down by the wind, as the Mets’ Pete Alonso discovered in the third inning -- as did Francisco Lindor in the fifth. And Hernández’s homer in the sixth came off a splitter from Mets reliever Reed Garrett, who entered the night having thrown 289 splitters this year without giving up a home run.

In the sixth inning, Hernández bucked the odds on both counts.

“I thought it was going to be way gone,” Hernández said. “I saw [Mets left fielder Brandon] Nimmo try to jump for it, and I kind of panicked for half a second. But I don't care if there was an inside-the-parker -- a homer is a homer.”

Said Garrett: “I wasn't trying to throw it thigh high. I didn't execute the pitch, and he put a good swing on it. He's a good hitter. He just put a good swing on a bad pitch. … He's made some good swings and had some great postseason success.”

That’s putting it mildly. Hernández now has 15 home runs in a postseason career that includes opportunities with the Dodgers and Red Sox over 19 series as far back as 2015. Yes, that’s as many postseason home runs as Babe Ruth, albeit in 57 more plate appearances.

But Hernández does his best impression of The Babe every October. In the regular season, he’s homered once every 29.1 at-bats. In the postseason, that frequency improves to once every 13.3 at-bats. In the postseason, 26.8 percent of his hits are home runs, compared to 14.5 percent in the regular season.

As a result, Hernández is an unlikely member of this list of MLB’s active leaders in postseason homers:

1. Jose Altuve: 27
2. Kyle Schwarber: 21
3-T. George Springer: 19
3-T. Alex Bregman: 19
3-T. Corey Seager: 19
6. Carlos Correa: 18
7. Bryce Harper: 17
8. Kiké Hernández: 15
9. Aaron Judge: 14
10-T. Justin Turner: 13
10-T. Giancarlo Stanton: 13
10-T. Max Muncy: 13

“I think some people just really like the moment,” said Dodgers backup catcher Austin Barnes. “He’s one of the people who can focus and bear down in those moments. He wants the moment. I think that’s a talent and a skill.”

“When Kiké hit the home run, you could hear a pin drop in the stadium,” Muncy said. “When you’re on the road, anything you can do to take the energy out of the stadium is gigantic. That’s definitely what happened tonight.”

Muncy finished the job in the ninth, when he etched his name next to former teammates Seager and Turner in the Dodgers record books. They all hit 13 home runs for L.A.

“Those are two really great players, really great Dodgers,” Muncy said. “Corey Seager almost single-handedly won us a World Series [in 2020]. It’s definitely a blessing to be on a team that allows you to have those opportunities to reach these numbers.”