A stiff breeze with gusts up to 16 mph blew from left field to right field in chilly Citi Field on Wednesday night, knocking down a pair of Francisco Lindor drives that died on the warning track in center field in the first inning and left field in the fifth, and a 388-foot Mark Vientos drive that fizzled at the center-field wall in the fifth.
So even though Dodgers utility man Kiké Hernández felt like he barreled up a cut fastball from New York Mets reliever Reed Garrett in the top of the sixth, sending a high-arcing drive to deep left field, there was no guarantee that what looked like a sure home run off his bat would leave the yard.
Only when the ball cleared the glove of leaping left fielder Brandon Nimmo and settled into the first row of seats above the wall was Hernández assured of a two-run blast that turned a two-run lead into a four-run lead, providing much-needed breathing room in the Dodgers’ 8-0 National League Championship Series Game 3 victory .
“I knew I hit it, and I thought it was going to be way gone, and then I saw Nimmo try to jump for it,” Hernández said after the Dodgers took a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series. “I kind of panicked for a half-second. The wind kind of scared me. But don’t care if it was an inside-the-parker, a homer is a homer.”
The Dodgers were clinging to a 2-0 lead, having scored two unearned runs off Mets starter Luis Severino in the second and failed to cash in after loading the bases with one out in the third and putting runners on second and third with two outs in the fifth.
But Tommy Edman provided a spark with a two-out single to right in the sixth and took second on a balk. Hernández fell behind 1-and-2 in the count before fouling off a 90-mph splitter and a 98-mph fastball that was way above the zone.
Garrett, who had tossed five scoreless innings over his first four playoff games, then left an 88-mph splitter a little up and in to Hernández, who homered for a 4-0 lead.
“Immensely,” manager Dave Roberts said, when asked how much Hernández’s homer changed the complexion of the game. “We found a way to get lucky and score a couple runs in the second, but for Kiké to have that [six-pitch] at-bat, get the ball up in the zone and hit a homer was enormous. It was the biggest hit of the game.”
Batting ninth, Hernández said his focus in Game 3 was to get on base for leadoff man Shohei Ohtani, and when he struck out in the second and flied to left in the fourth, “I was pretty upset,” Hernández said. When he fell behind in the count in the sixth, his “whole mentality” was to get on base.
“I was trying to battle and put myself in a position to walk or get a hit,” Hernández said. “I swung at a pitch that was probably head-high and was able to foul it off. I told myself to slow down, because I caught myself in swing mode. The very next pitch, he hung a splitter, and I was able to get enough of it.”
Hernández finally got on base for Ohtani in the eighth, following Will Smith’s leadoff walk with a one-out single to right-center. Ohtani followed with a three-run homer into the second deck in right field that left his bat at 115.9 mph and traveled 410 feet — and straight over the foul pole — for a 7-0 lead.
“That ball was 100 feet over the foul pole,” said third baseman Max Muncy, who hit a solo homer in the ninth, singled in the third and walked three times. “The foul pole is not tall enough for that one.”
Ohtani’s blast continued a baffling playoff trend in which he is batting .778 (seven for nine) with two homers and eight RBIs with men on base and is hitless in 22 at-bats with the bases empty.
“He’s the best player on the field every day — oh, he hasn’t got a hit with nobody on? Who cares,” right fielder Mookie Betts said. “It’s Shohei Ohtani. Every time he steps in the box, everybody is expecting something to happen. That’s the problem. He’s done it so many times, you expect it. He’s human for [22] at-bats.”
Ohtani’s homer provided enough cushion for Roberts to avoid using high-leverage relievers Evan Phillips, Anthony Banda and Daniel Hudson and to let low-leverage right-hander Ben Casparius pitch the final two innings, preserving more of the bullpen for Games 4 and 5.
“In a long series,” Roberts said, “those things matter.”
So do clutch October hits like the ones Hernández has made a habit of delivering. In 78 playoff games with the Dodgers and Boston Red Sox, Hernández is batting .280 with a .903 on-base-plus-slugging percentage, 15 homers and 32 RBIs. His 1.077 OPS on the road in the postseason ranks fourth all-time, behind Lou Gehrig, Babe Ruth and Carlos Beltran. He’s a career .238 hitter with a .713 OPS in 11 regular seasons.
“Some people just really like the moment,” backup catcher Austin Barnes said. “Playoffs can get uncomfortable for some people, but I think he’s one of those guys who can focus and bear down in these moments. And he wants the moment. That’s a talent and a skill.”
