Kiké is 'en fuego' for Red Sox this postseason

This is how it still happens in October. This is the enduring magic of the month within baseball. The face of the game right now -- joyful and sometimes even full of wonder about what he’s doing for the Red Sox, is Kiké Hernández. He is the biggest name in baseball right now, the best player in the game over the past couple of weeks.

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Hernández is not doing it alone for the Red Sox, of course. J.D. Martinez hit a grand slam in the first inning of Boston's 9-6 Game 2 win over the Astros on Saturday. The slugger now has 22 RBIs in 19 postseason games with Boston. Then in the second inning came another grand slam, this one from Rafael Devers, the 24-year-old who continued to show that he is not just one of the bright young stars of baseball, but on his way to being a superstar.

But it is Hernández who continues to put remarkable numbers into the books the same way David "Big Papi" Ortiz used to in the postseason. Other players have had moments for their teams. Chris Taylor won the Dodgers’ Wild Card playoff on Oct. 6 against the Cardinals with a ninth-inning home run, and Freddie Freeman had a notable home run swing that sent the Braves into the NLCS. Christian Vázquez knocked one into the Monster Seats for the Red Sox in the 13th inning of Game 3 of the ALDS against the Rays on Oct. 10.

But Hernández is different. He is having a month.

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“It’s October,” he said. “It’s a blast.”

Hernández usually makes comments like that after he's hit another ball out of the yard. And know this: You cannot call him an unlikely October hero. He has had his moments before, especially when he was with the Dodgers; like in 2017 against the Cubs, when he hit three homers (one grand slam) in one game and knocked in seven runs.

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But now? Now, Hernández's numbers are giving off a beam of light. Over his last five games he went 15-for-25 with four doubles, five homers, a .600 batting average and a 1.360 slugging percentage. He became the first in Major League Baseball history with 15 hits over a five-game span in the postseason. It doesn’t hurt that he is hitting ahead of Devers, who has batted .364 with three homers and 10 RBIs over the same five-game span.

Hernández's five homers in just five games (in one postseason) already tied a franchise record for the Red Sox. Ortiz did that twice, in 2004 and '13. Todd Walker did it in 2003. And as John Labombarda of the Elias Sports Bureau points out, they haven’t walked Hernández yet.

Hernández also happens to be playing center field like a dream. It was Hernández who made a crazy running catch on Michael Brantley with one out in the second inning of Game 1 on Friday, when the Astros had bases loaded. It was Hernández who looked like he was making a racing dive as he made a throw to the plate in the 8th inning of that same Game 1, trying to cut down the run for the Astros that ultimately won them the game.

“The importance of the game is making me remain focused and locked in,” he said on television after Game 2.

Boston manager Alex Cora had a more apt and simple description of what we are witnessing.

“Kiké is en fuego,” Cora said.

He is. Hernández is playing like his nickname should be "Little Papi," as he keeps finding ways to help the Red Sox win, both at the plate and on the field. And he's looking to do more now that the ALCS moves back to Fenway Park for the next three games. Do you know who is the most important free agent that any team in the sport signed between last season and this?

Hernández is.

“Focused and locked in,” he said Saturday.

It should have surprised no one that after the two grand slams early in Game 2, Hernández hit a home run of his own, a solo shot to make it 9-0. He had two more hits on the day and reached base another time when he was hit by a pitch.

And he kept giving the Red Sox moments in the field. Go take another look at the catch he made against Brantley in Game 1. Here Hernández came, flying, diving, somehow getting his glove under the ball and keeping it in there.

Then take a look at his face after he made the catch. Look at the pure fun it displayed, the joy of someone playing the game the way he is playing it. Again: Others have had moments. Hernández is having a month. And the month may just be getting started for him and his team.

Hernández even hit a home run on Friday while Dusty Baker, the Astros' manager, was being interviewed on FOX. Afterward, Baker joked, “I blame it on FOX."

Blame it on October. Just another blast from a guy putting on a show. Every year it seems to be somebody. This year, so far, it’s Hernández. Everybody gets their chance at this time of the year, when the lights go all the way up in baseball. Hernández is making the most of his chance. Hitting like "Little Papi." Doing big things these days for the Boston Red Sox.