Kiké Hernández returned to the big leagues and received playoff-level cheers at Dodger Stadium. In the bottom of the third inning against the Rockies, he hit an RBI double down the left field line after taking a ball. The Dodgers later struggled early but found momentum in the seventh inning. Their rally came after shaky relief pitching, and they scored enough to win 5-3. Hernández reached on an infield single in his second at-bat before being replaced by a pinch-hitter during the rally. His path back included a two-month injured list last year, seven elbow injections that did not work, and a procedure that helped numb pain before it returned during the NLCS. After surgery on his left elbow, he learned the injury was severe and faced an uncertain timeline.
"After taking a ball, Hernández sent a four-seam fastball hopping down the left field line for an RBI double that scored Hyeseong Kim. The crowd of 48,778 exploded. It was shaping up to be a happy return, but it wasn't until the seventh inning that the rest of the Dodgers lineup found its footing, taking advantage of some shaky relief pitching to rally for a 5-3 victory over the Colorado Rockies."
"Hernández's journey back to the big leagues has been an arduous one. Throughout his two-month stint last year on the injured list, he received seven injections in his elbow. None worked. A procedure by Neal ElAttrache helped numb the pain, but it came roaring back when the 34-year-old dove for a ball in Game 3 of the NLCS against the Brewers."
""Every time I would get in my batting stance, I would feel like I had a blowtorch on, and it was kind of frustrating because there was not much we could do for it," Hernández said before the game. Hernández had made peace with his injury, given he was able to push through to a World Series win with little time to heal."
"When he woke, still a little delirious, ElAttrache told him the news: "'This was the worst injury I've ever seen of this kind, and I don't know how you played,'" Hernández recalled him saying. Hernández then FaceTimed Dodgers"
Read at Los Angeles Times
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]