Reggie Jackson will always be “Mr. October” in the minds of baseball fans, but in these parts that name could be attributed to a lesser-known and little-heralded Dodgers company man who seems to do his best work on baseball’s biggest stage.

Kiké Hernández delivered his latest in a long line of fall explosions on Friday night, sending a 95-mph fastball from Yu Darvish deep into the left-field pavilion for a solo home run in the second inning of a 2-0 National League Division Series -clinching Game 5 win over the San Diego Padres.

And for good measure, Hernández moved from center field to third base in the ninth inning and made two nice plays on grounders by Donovan Solano and Fernando Tatis Jr., the latter ending a thrilling winner-take-all all” game and sparked wild celebrations from players on the mound and fans amid the sold-out crowd of 53,183 at Chavez Ravine.

Not that his teammates expected anything less.

“Kiké hitting a home run and making big plays is probably the least surprising thing of the night,” Dodgers second baseman Gavin Lux said amid pulsating hip-hop music, champagne and beer showers and a haze of cigar smoke in a victorious clubhouse.

“In the bigger games he will always show up. He has that look in his eye that he’s going to do something big, and this team feeds off that.”

Hernández, who was acquired at the 2023 trade deadline and returned to the Dodgers. on a one-year, $4 million deal last winter, he is a career .238 hitter with a .713 on-base-plus-slugging percentage in 11 major league seasons. But in 75 postseason games, he’s hitting .277 with an .899 OPS and 14 home runs, nine of them for the Dodgers.

“We are in Los Angeles with some of the greatest athletes of all time, and those great athletes are not afraid to fail,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “Everyone knows that Kiké loves the spotlight. Some people love it. Some people run from it.

“When you talk about this market, the postseason, people in (his native) Puerto Rico watching him all over the country, he’s at his best. This man always rises to the occasion. The reason we got him this year was because we won 11 games in October.”

Hernández didn’t always wear a cape in October. Way back in his first postseason for the Dodgers, in a 3-2 loss to the New York Mets in the deciding Game 5 of the division series, Hernández struck out in the first inning with runners on first and third base and hit in a doubles match. with runners on first and third to end the third.

Kiké Hernández celebrates after hitting a solo home run in the second inning of the Dodgers’ 2-0 victory over the San Diego Padres in Game 5 of the NLDS on Friday night.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

In 2016, Hernández went hitless in eight at-bats in an NL Championship Series loss to the Chicago Cubs.

“In my first postseason we lost (Game 5) by one point, and you go through scenarios of how the game could have gone differently – if I came through for my team, the game would have been different, and maybe we would have continued. ,” Hernández said. “In 2016 I went with the same mentality and things didn’t go well for me.

“But in 2017 I had a completely different mentality. We had a great team, we were rolling, and the night before Game 5 of the NLCS I switched gears for the first time and said, ‘I’m tired of feeling what if, what if.’ I went to bed thinking about how I was going to answer the questions because I had a great day putting the team in the World Series.”

The next night at Wrigley Field, Hernández hit three home runs and drove in seven runs in an 11-1 victory over the Cubs that sent the Dodgers to the World Series against the Houston Astros, “and I haven’t looked back since,” he said .

As much pre-game work as Hernández does to prepare himself for the outfield and four infield positions and to keep his swing in shape, some of his most important work takes place between his ears, often the night before big games.

“You have to understand that there are only two ways things can go – you can be successful or you can fail – but you can’t be afraid to fail,” Hernández said. ‘You have to want the moment, want the at bat. But it’s very easy to see yourself failing in the postseason, and the fear, the self-doubt, all these things start to creep into your mind.

Kiké Hernández, center, celebrates with Mookie Betts, left, and Teoscar Hernández after hitting a solo home run for the Dodgers in the second inning against the San Diego Padres in Game 5 of the NLDS at Dodger Stadium on Friday.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

“That’s why I believe so strongly in the power of visualizing the night before the game. Whenever those doubts arise, I visualize myself succeeding again and again. You come to the field the next day and you have already seen the day happen. So nothing overwhelms you. No moment is too big.”

Hernández, who entered the starting lineup after shortstop Miguel Rojas aggravated his left adductor injury in Game 3 and singled twice in an 8-0 Game 4 victory, has not mastered these visualization techniques for himself.

“Kiké told me before the game that me and him will be the first players with the same last name in a playoff game, and we did that,” said outfielder Teoscar Hernández, whose solo shot in the seventh gave the Dodgers a lead. huge insurance run. “I believe in him. He believes in me. I believe in myself and we enjoyed today.”

A pre-game decision to follow his gut — and not necessarily the team’s scouting report — contributed to Kiké Hernández’s home run.

“I was talking to the batters and I thought, ‘I think we have to be on the fastball against Yu – he’s got way too many pitches to cover, and if you’re not on speed, he’s got five. speed heights,” Hernández said. “They quite disagreed with me. I’m glad I proved them wrong.”

Hernández jumped on Darvish’s fastball on the first pitch of the inner half and sent a 107.2 mph drive 450 feet to the left field seats. Hernández, always the joker, grabbed coach Dino Ebel’s groin while trotting at third base. After the game, he was so excited that he dropped an expletive during an on-field television interview on Fox Sports.

“I kept telling myself, ‘They brought you here for a reason, they brought you here to play in October,’ and I wanted to come back and make a run with this team because I really want a parade have,” Hernández said. “I knew that whether it was on defense or on the home plate, I would find a way to win this game for us.”