Teoscar Hernández Finds Redemption With Heroic HR After Defensive Lapse

PHILADELPHIA – The Dodgers knew that aside from the Phillies pitching staff, the other formidable adversary they would have to battle all night would be the irrepressible, head-splitting noise from the crowd at Citizens Bank Park.

Dodgers players were told: Something is going to happen in the game that will make the crowd go wild. When that happens, focus on the end goal of winning, and how sweet it will feel to silence the noise. 

Then, in an unusual instance, the same Dodgers player who made Phillies fans howl with glee because of his lackadaisical defensive effort was the same hitter who silenced them with one swing. 

Teoscar Hernandez, who let the Phillies empty the bases in the second inning when he took a low-effort and lateral route on a J.T. Realmuto base hit to right field, atoned for his mistake when he crushed a go-ahead three-run home run in the seventh to give the Dodgers their first lead.

Hernandez’s redemption swing took the air out of The Bank and quieted the 48,777 in attendance for good. Backed by Shohei Ohtani’s nine strikeouts in his first career postseason start, the Dodgers took Game 1 against the Phillies in a 5-3 win on Saturday night. 

“At the end of the day, for me, anything that happened before a big moment like that, it’s in the past,” Hernandez said. “I try to put it in the trash and just focus on the things that I need to do in that at-bat and especially in place on defense and just trying to help my team.”

In the second inning, with Brandon Marsh on first base and Alex Bohm on second, Realmuto got to a 100 mph fastball from Ohtani and hit it to the perfect spot in right field, where Hernandez did a poor job of attempting to field his position. Realmuto hit the ball 112 mph off his bat, so it was a scorcher. But Hernandez’s lack of hustle and strange lateral route to a ball that was hit in front of him allowed it to roll all the way back to the right-field wall, where center fielder Andy Pages eventually fielded it.

In the meantime, Realmuto cleared the bases and wound up at third base with the first postseason triple of his career. The Phillies ended the inning with a 3-0 lead. This was that moment that Dodgers players were warned about. The crowd went ballistic, hungry for what it believed could be a Game 1 Phillies win.

“I was playing straight in,” Hernandez said. “I didn’t get a good angle. He hit it pretty good. I tried to get it, so he can’t go all the way to third, or they can score two runs in that situation. It went by me.”

This isn’t a new problem for Hernandez. The 32-year-old has been a liability in right field for a while now. Just last month, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts critiqued the outfielder for his subpar defense, saying “there’s no other way to put it” than to admit that Hernandez “has to get better out there.” 

Now, it’s the postseason, the most important part of the long and grinding baseball schedule, and Hernandez’s defense is still an issue. He hasn’t gotten better out there, and it’s costing the Dodgers runs. 

“I’ve got to look at it again,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of his second-inning play. “I would argue that he wasn’t not trying. But, yeah, that’s a ball that you don’t want Realmuto to have a triple, certainly a short right field.”

As concerning as Hernandez’s miscue was, it’s part of what made his atonement in the seventh inning so sweet.   

The Dodgers trailed the Phillies all night thanks to left-hander Cristopher Sanchez’s overpowering sinker and changeup mix. Finally, when Sanchez began to tire and Phillies manager Rob Thomson went to the bullpen, Dodgers bats broke out. With runners on first and second against lefty reliever Matt Strahm, Hernandez had the ideal opportunity to make sure the moment that everyone remembered wouldn’t be his misplay in right field, but his heroics at the plate. 

Strahm missed his spot, and Hernandez was all over the 92 mph fastball that fell into the middle of the zone. As the ball landed in the right-field seats, the crowd went completely still. The only audible sounds came from Hernandez, shouting as he trotted the bases, and from the Dodgers dugout, as teammates cheered for their imperfect right fielder who, time and time again, has found a way to come through in the clutch.

“It was a great moment,” said Ohtani, who held the Phillies to those three runs while walking one batter over six solid innings. “It’s definitely a highlight for us and for the team.”

Phillies fans were stupefied after Hernandez’s go-ahead three-run home run. Not even the fire and tarantula theatrics of closer Jhoan Duran’s warmup song — which seemed overdone and out of touch as the Phillies trailed by two runs when he appeared out of the ‘pen — woke up the crowd. 

‘Now the pressure is on the Phillies’ — Derek Jeter after the Dodgers take Game 1

“MLB on FOX” crew discuss the Los Angeles Dodgers Game 1 win over the Philadelphia Phillies, Shohei Ohtani’s playoff pitching debut, and look ahead to Game 2

Despite the initial intimidation of playing in the raucous Citizens Bank Park, despite trailing the Phillies for six innings, the Dodgers came from behind for the 49th time this season, and won. 

“When you come into hostile environments, there’s going to be moments that happen that, the crowd goes crazy,” third baseman Max Muncy said. “You just gotta find a way to weather that storm and just understand what the end goal is.”

Deesha Thosar covers Major League Baseball as a reporter and columnist for FOX Sports. She previously covered the Mets as a beat reporter for the New York Daily News. The daughter of Indian immigrants, Deesha grew up on Long Island and now lives in Queens. Follow her on Twitter at @DeeshaThosar.

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