Kiké Hernández hit Big Papi territory on October 6. His two-run home run in NLDS Game 3 pushed him to 17 career postseason homers and tied David Ortiz.
The Los Angeles Dodgers won 3-1, and Hernández opened the scoring. That is the kind of October production that changes a series without looking like a season-long star turn.
17 homers, one tie
Seventeen postseason homers now puts Hernández level with David Ortiz, Jim Thome and Aaron Judge in the exact category that tends to define October reputations. The number is striking because it comes from efficiency in a shorter runway: just 25 postseason series and a career line that looks ordinary next to the October output.
Over 13 major league seasons, Hernández has hit.235/.304/.402. In the postseason, he has hit.272/.338/.493 with 11 doubles, two triples and 44 RBI. That gap is the whole story in one split: he has been better when the games matter most than his regular-season profile suggests.
Boston Red Sox in the 2021
Five of those postseason homers came for the Boston Red Sox in the 2021 postseason, when Hernández kept driving games forward for a club that made an unexpected run to the ALCS. He also walked the Red Sox off into the ALCS on a sac fly that October, a reminder that his value has never depended on one swing alone.
That 2021 run still explains why this tie feels larger than a single box score. Hernández has spent nearly his entire major league career with the Los Angeles Dodgers, and the October pattern has been there long enough to stop looking accidental.
The Dodgers and NLCS
Since 2013, the Dodgers have made the playoffs every year, which gives Hernández a steady postseason stage and keeps his October numbers in motion. The cleanest read now is simple: he has already joined Ortiz at 17, and every further hit pushes him deeper into a group built on repeat damage, not regular-season noise.
The immediate consequence is all on the Dodgers side. They still needed one more victory to move on to another NLCS, and Hernández’s homer in NLDS Game 3 gave them a lead they could protect while his postseason total moved again.
