Must be October, because Super Kiké Hernández is

For Kiké Hernández, the common season is little more than a six-month warm-up. Real baseball is performed when the night air turns crisp and the leaves start to change.

And when summer time turns to fall few gamers have stepped up larger than Hernández, who had two hits, scored two runs and drove in another Wednesday, spurring a Dodger comeback that ended in an 8-4 win over the Cincinnati Reds and a sweep of their National League wild-card sequence.

That sends the crew on to the best-of-five Division Series with the Phillies, which begins Saturday in Philadelphia.

“October Kiké is something pretty special,” Dodger supervisor Dave Roberts said. “And the track record speaks for itself. He’s one of the best throughout the history of the postseason.”

It’s a fame he’s earned.

A .236 profession hitter in the common season, Hernández has hit .286 in 88 postseason video games. He slashed .203/.255/.366 in an injury-marred common season this yr, but two video games into the playoffs he’s hitting .500, leads the Dodgers with three runs scored and ranks second to Mookie Betts with 4 hits. He also made a splendid over-the-shoulder catch while racing to the warning observe in the first inning Wednesday.

“Some guys are built for this moment. He’s definitely one of them,” said third baseman Max Muncy, standing in the center of the Dodgers’ batting cage during the crew’s postgame celebration, his blue T-shirt soaked in champagne as a teammate poured beer over his head.

Hernández, sporting goggles but not a shirt, made a temporary look at the victory get together but departed to have a good time with household before the champagne and beer started to puddle on the plastic sheeting that coated the ground.

His teammates have been all too joyful to converse about him in his absence.

“He’s a guy who is not shy from the from the moment,” infielder Miguel Rojas said. “I feel like the regular season for him is not enough.”

Rojas said he realized that first hand after rejoining the Dodgers in 2023. Although the crew’s playoff run was temporary, Hernández led the crew with two RBIs and was second in hits and average.

“I saw it on TV before. But when I got here I saw that it was real,” he said. “He always wanted the moment and he showed it tonight with a big double to tie the game.”

That got here with one out in the fourth, when his line drive to heart subject scored Muncy from first to tie the rating, 2-2. Four pitches later he scored on Rojas’ single, placing the Dodgers forward to keep.

But Hernández wasn’t completed. Two innings later he led off with a squibber up the third-base line that was going foul before it hit the bag for a single, beginning a four-run rally that put the sport away. The backside third of the Dodger lineup — Hernández, Rojas and catcher Ben Rortvedt — mixed to go six for 12 with 5 runs and two RBIs.

“Kiké is Kiké,” outfielder Teoscar Hernández said above the din of the celebration. “That’s the guy you get when October starts.”

Before that? Not so a lot. But for Hernández, the postseason has turn into redemption time.

“I know they brought me here for these types of moments,” he said before Wednesday’s recreation.

“The beautiful thing about the postseason is that once we get to the postseason, everything starts at zero. You can have a bad year and you flip the script and you start over in the postseason. You have a good postseason, help the team win, and nobody ever remembers what you did in the regular season.”

Hernández, 34, owes a lot of his fall heroics merely to the chance to play on the game’s greatest stage. In a dozen big-league seasons, he’s made the playoffs 10 occasions, taking part in in 21 postseason sequence with the Dodgers and Boston Red Sox and profitable two World Series rings.

“I’ve been blessed to be on the right team at the right time,” he said. “Being a good postseason player is kind of an individual thing, but not really. You’re on a team that doesn’t make the playoffs, you can’t be a postseason player.

“I just happen to be on a lot of really good teams, and I’ve been fortunate enough to get a lot of chances.”

With his efficiency Wednesday, he assured himself at least three more probabilities in the division sequence with the Phillies. And Rojas expects him to take full benefit.

“He always wants the moment and he wants to be out there,” he said. “I’m learning from him every single day. He’s the most prepared guy that I’ve ever played with.”

Especially in October.