Teoscar Hernandez’s outfield defense has once again cost the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Hernandez had a rough misplay during Wednesday’s Game 5 of the World Series against the Toronto Blue Jays. In the fourth inning at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, Calif., Toronto’s Daulton Varsho led off by smacking a looper towards Hernandez in right field.
Instead of simply playing the ball off the bounce and holding Varsho to a single, Hernandez decided to go into a slide to try to make the catch. Hernandez missed the ball completely though and ended up letting Varsho into third with a stand-up triple as a result.
Daulton Varsho leads off the fourth inning with a triple that gets by a sliding Teoscar Hernandez! pic.twitter.com/SESf4ASC9p
— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) October 30, 2025
The bad play immediately cost the Dodgers. Toronto’s very next batter, Ernie Clement, hit a fly ball to center field that brought Varsho home off the sacrifice fly. That made the score 3-1 in favor of the Blue Jays.
Hernandez, the two-time All-Star, has been very shaky in the outfield for the Dodgers all year. With Mookie Betts moving into the infield full-time, Hernandez has had to become the everyday right fielder in Los Angeles … and hasn’t quite answered the call.
The 33-year-old Hernandez was already committing brutal defensive blunders during the regular season and continued on that theme during the earlier stages of the playoffs as well. Wednesday’s misplay in Game 5 might have been the most costly one yet for Hernandez, especially since the Dodgers got off to a horrid start to the game that they had to climb out of.
