LOS ANGELES, CA — There are two guarantees when the calendar flips over to October, Halloween celebrated on the final day of the month and Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Teoscar Hernández becoming a pest for any opposing pitcher to navigate through.
A switch from All-Star to superstar.
In the Dodgers’ Game 1 National League Division Series 5-3 victory over the Braves Saturday afternoon at Dodger Stadium, the 33-year-old of Cotuí, Dominican Republic fired first for Los Angeles, lighting up the scoreboard on a fourth-inning two run go ahead home run off Atlanta’s Victor Mederos.
TEOSCAR HERNÁNDEZ LEAVES THE YARD! pic.twitter.com/fPkgA1xwKz
— MLB (@MLB) October 3, 2026
His 431-foot blast to deep left center field, lifting the back-to-back World Series champs up 2-0, marked Hernández’s 11th career postseason home run and ninth with the Dodgers across just 34 games—the ninth most postseason HRs in franchise history.
“I think Teo is good in big moments because he’s not afraid to fail,” said manager Dave Roberts as LA’s gone 7-0 in the team’s last seven postseason games in which Hernández has homered.
“I think he has a short memory in the sense of, if something doesn’t go well, he has a way to just kind of reset, recalibrate. I think he just focuses a little bit more.”
Teoscar Hernández has homered in each of the last SIX Postseason series the Dodgers have played 🤯 pic.twitter.com/LPniPoa7OY
— MLB (@MLB) October 3, 2026
And like Roberts, who has all the postseason experience as a player and manager with a ton of playoff games under his belt, Hernández confirmed his manager’s thoughts of his ability to turn it on in October:
“For me, Dave is right. I always talk to him about big at-bats. I really don’t care if I strike out in big situations. I always want to be the guy to be in those moments. I work really hard for it and I think the bigger the moment, the more focused I get.”
After Hernández’s clutch homer, the three-time Silver Slugger and two-time All-Star—signing with the Dodgers in January of 2024 just before LA’s World Series two-peat and ongoing chase to go back-to-back-to-back—was not done there.
In his next time up to the plate against right-hander AJ Smith-Shawver in the sixth, Hernández connected for a single, leading to Kyle Tucker’s chance to add on after him, which the left-handed slugger hit on, smacking a two-run HR of his own.
LONG GONE 💪
Kyle Tucker sends this 2-run homer 408 feet! pic.twitter.com/d8PxcSl0kA
— MLB (@MLB) October 3, 2026
“I think I was more happy than him,” Hernández said of Tucker and his big HR. “We’ve been going through a lot this year, but we stayed together. We have each other’s back. We’re going to continue to try to do our best and try to do our job so we can keep winning.”
Looking Ahead to Game 2 of NLDS
With the Dodgers up 1-0 in the best of five NLDS and Game 2 scheduled for Sunday night, October 4th at 8:08pm ET, the Braves starting pitching plans still remain a question while LHP Blake Snell (4-1, 1.90 ERA) gets the ball for Los Angeles.
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