Dodgers’ Kike Hernández will play in his fifth World Series and 86th postseason game “It’s pretty special”
The Puerto Rican utility player is set to make Dodgers history. He is also hoping to win his third World Series ring.
The 121st edition of the World Series will get underway at Rogers Centre in Toronto this evening as the Dodgers and Blue Jays go head in Game 1.
This will be the first time that the two franchises have faced each other in the Fall Classic and the 31st meeting between the two teams with the Dodgers leading the head-to-head stats 19-11.
No.5 for Hernández
And Kike Hernández, this will be his fifth World Series. The Puerto Rican has been on the winning side twice, and the losing side twice - all with the Dodgers.
He was part of David Roberts’ team that missed out on the title for two year in a row, losing to the Houston Astros (4–3) in 2017 and the Boston Red Sox (4-1) the following year.
Hernández finally gained his first ring in 2020, when the Dodgers beat the Tampa Bay Rays 4–2 with the series played exclusively at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas due to Covid pandemic restrictions. He ended the series with two hits in 10 at-bats.
Last year, he played a key part in helping the Dodgers win their eighth title, overcoming the Yankees in five games.
Tonight in Toronto, Hernández will make history. It will be the 86th postseason game of his career, pulling him level with Justin Turner’s franchise record set between 2014 and his departure in 2022.
Humbled and proud, but focused on the job in hand
Hernández said that he wasn’t aware of the milestone but is proud to find himself alongside Turner, when he spoke to the media this week.
“Humbled, fortunate... this is not just any franchise man, this is the LA Dodgers, they’ve been around for a long time and they have a lot of history. And for a guy like me from Puerto Rico, who kinda swam against the current my entire life, to be sitting in this position is pretty special,” Hernández told reporters.
“But at the same time, I haven’t really wanted to reflect too much on it because there’s gonna be a time for that once I’m done playing, and I’m going to have a lot of years to reflect on it,” he continued. “But for now, I’m just... I mean, as cool as that is, and I’m going to take that to the grave with me, I’m just focused on today and it will be cool if my name is up there with the most Dodger World Series ever. But to be creeping up on playing the most playoff games as a Dodger is something that I never really dreamed of or thought that would happen so. that’s something that is pretty special and I wasn’t really aware of it until you just said that. So that’s why I’m caught a little off guard, sorry.”
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