Kiké Hernandez predicted he would hit a home run in Game 5. He just didn’t know he would hit three of them.
Hernandez tied a postseason record by belting three home runs in Game 5 of the NLCS on Thursday to help send the Los Angeles Dodgers to the World Series. His three homers in the 11-1 victory over the Chicago Cubs set a postseaso record for the Dodgers.
During an interview with MLB Network after the game, Hernandez says he told his mom he would hit a home run in the game.
"Make sure you get there before the game starts, because I'm going to hit a homer!" – @kikehndez to his mother before Game Five. @Dodgers pic.twitter.com/MAz40nhbp3
— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) October 20, 2017
“Like three minutes before I came down to the cage to get ready for the game, I texted [my mom] and said, ‘Hey, where are you going to be watching the game?’ And she said, ‘I’m going to go to your grandparents. They’ve got the generator on and we’re going to power on the TV and watch the game there. I saw the game at home last night, and you guys lost. The games I’ve watched at your grandparents, you guys have won, so I’m going to watch it there,'” Hernandez recalled.
Hernandez then broke out a fateful promise.
“I was like, ‘Alright, just make sure you get there before the game starts because I’m going to hit a homer.’ She goes, ‘Well, don’t think about hitting a homer; just think about putting the ball in play.'”
Hernandez then said that he was trying to put the ball in play the first two games and that didn’t work, so he decided he would just try and hit homers.
“I hit more homers in the game than I did in (batting practice),” he joked.
His prediction certainly proved to be prescient. Maybe he had the right mindset entering the game, and that’s what helped him come up huge in Game 5.
