Kiké Hernández Had Profane Reaction to Getting Bodied by Teammate on Game-Saving Play

Things could have gone really badly for Kiké Hernández and the Dodgers in the ninth inning of Game 7.
Dodgers' Kiké Hernández reacts to his collision with Andy Pages on a game-saving play in the ninth inning of Game 7's win in the World Series.
Dodgers' Kiké Hernández reacts to his collision with Andy Pages on a game-saving play in the ninth inning of Game 7's win in the World Series. / Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images
In this story:

Dodgers' Kiké Hernández was nearly on the wrong side of history during Game 7's win over the Blue Jays in the World Series on Saturday night. Thanks to his teammate's clutch game-saving play in the ninth inning, he and the Dodgers escaped what might have been a full-blown catastrophe.

At the bottom of the ninth, with the bases loaded and two outs for Toronto, Blue Jays' Ernie Clement hit a drive to left-center field that sailed high and was frantically pursued by two Dodgers outfielders: Kiké Hernández and Andy Pages. Hernández was sprinting backwards and seemed to be gearing up to make a Willie Mays-style over the shoulder catch, but he got there a tad too late. Instead, Pages, who had just subbed in for defense, leapt and came down with the catch but collided with Hernández in the process, sending Hernández sprawling onto the ground.

Hernández was asked for his thoughts about Pages's game-saving play, and he revealed what he immediately asked Pages after getting bodied:

"I was going to pull a Willie Mays, and then [Pages] tackled me, and I felt like I got dunked on, and I thought we lost," Hernández said, via ESPN. "I was just down because I thought we lost. And he came up to me and said, 'Are you OK?' 'F--- that, do you have the ball?' He's like, 'Yeah.' I'm like, 'Yeah, let's go!'"

Hernández also admitted, "When the World Series is on the line, I was willing to get hit in the face."

Spoken like a true teammate.

It was a truly wild way for the Dodgers to end the ninth and send the game into extra innings with the World Series on the line. The Dodgers ended up clinching the title in the 11th to become the first MLB team to win back-to-back championships since the Yankees in '98 to '00.


More MLB on Sports Illustrated

feed


Published |Modified
Kristen Wong
KRISTEN WONG

Kristen Wong is a staff writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. She has been a sports journalist since 2020. Before joining SI in November 2023, Wong covered four NFL teams as an associate editor with the FanSided NFL Network and worked as a staff writer for the brand’s flagship site. Outside of work, she has dreams of running her own sporty dive bar.