When the Los Angeles Dodgers initially set their lineup for Wednesday’s series finale against the San Diego Padres, it did not include Kiké Hernandez. However, when the Padres recalled Nick Margevicius, prompted a change for the Dodgers, who anticipated seeing the southpaw.
As a result, Hernandez replaced Joc Pederson in right field. The decision paid off in spades several hours later. Hernandez went 1-for-3 with an RBI single, two walks and stolen base that led to scoring a go-ahead run in the 10th inning.
“Kiké really had a heckuva ballgame,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said after his club defeated the Padres in extra innings. “When you get two outs and you can slug, most guys try to do it with one swing but Kiké took a good at-bat against Yates to get on base.
“Stealing second base, then Russ had a good at-bat and fortunately we got a little break by Urias throwing the ball away. I just thought our guys kept their composure.”
While Hernandez scored from second base because of Luis Urias’ inexplicable throwing error after making a terrific backhanded stop on a one-hopper hit to shortstop, it was keen awareness that led to it.
Francisco Mejia’s bloop double to lead off the bottom of the ninth was not just notable in that he scored on a wild pitch in Kenley Jansen’s career-high-tying seventh blown save of the season. Mejia appeared to be in some discomfort after his head-first slide into second base.
“I guess he tweaked his oblique a little bit on that slide. We made sure we kept an eye on him when we went back on offense,” Hernandez explained. “I knew they took (Austin) Hedges out of the game, so [Mejia] had to catch. There was no Plan C.
“His throws in between innings, he was lobbing it to the pitcher and then he kind of lobbed it to second base. I was like, ‘Well, if he can’t throw, I’m going to go.'”
Hernandez came up to bat with two outs and kept the inning alive by working a walk against Padres All-Star closer Kirby Yates. “I found a way to get to first and told George (Lombard), ‘He doesn’t look good right now, so if [Yates] gives me a high leg kick, I’m going to go.
“Sure enough, he got his leg up and I took off.”
While Hernandez was ruled safe, replay showed he briefly came off the bag while Urias still had the tag on. “You can say that I came off the base or whatever, but they didn’t challenge, so I didn’t,” he said.
“Since my left hand was on his leg, I might’ve been on, might’ve not. They didn’t challenge.”
The Padres were not in position to challenge the call because of doing so and coming away unsuccessful in an attempt to get Pederson’s pinch-hit double overturned in the eighth inning.
