Perhaps it will be a trivia question one day: Who tied Joc Pederson for the most home runs during spring training 2015 with six?

The answer is utility infielder/outfielder Kike Hernandez. But in spite of his hot bat and great defense during spring training, the extremely likable 23-year-old San Juan, Puerto Rico native began the season at Triple-A Oklahoma City. It wasn’t that Hernandez wasn’t good enough to play at the major league level; in fact, he already had while with the Astros and Marlins in 2014 before being traded to the Dodgers along with Chris Hatcher and Austin Barnes for Dee Gordon, Dan Haren and Miguel Rojas. It was because there simply wasn’t a spot for him on the Dodgers Opening Day roster.

But Hernandez had a plan and he was going to stick with it no matter what.

“If they decide to send me to Triple-A I’m just going to do my thing so I’m in Triple-A for a week or two maybe and I’ll be back up on the team,” Hernandez said during the final week of spring training. “I want to be in the big leagues, I want to help the team win. I really think I can help that.”

Although it took a little longer that one or two weeks (three to be exact) Hernandez was finally called up to the Dodgers on April 28 when outfielder Carl Crawford landed on the disabled list with a torn oblique muscle.

Prior to Wednesday’s late afternoon game against his former Marlins team, Hernandez had appeared in eight games and was 5 for 21 (.238). But that changed during Wednesday’s game when he singled in the bottom of the second inning and then hit a two-run home run in the bottom of the fifth – his first as a Dodger – to give his new team a 3-2 lead over his old team.

“It was a fastball middle-in. I had two strikes and was trying to battle to stay alive,” Hernandez said. “I played with [Jarred] Cosart with the Astros and with the Marlins so I know his tendencies, he knows mine. The at-bat before that I got a hit with two strikes on a curveball. I don’t know if that’s why he threw the fastball there but he made a mistake and I took advantage of it.”

Kike Hernandez slugged his first home run as a Dodger on Wednesday night to give his team a 3-2 lead. Unfortunately, the Dodgers bullpen was unable to hold onto that lead in the eventual 5-4 loss.
(Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

Indeed he did. Kike sent his former teammate’s mistake 403 feet into the Left Field Pavilion. Two batters later rookie center fielder Joc Pederson absolutely crush a solo home run to right to give the Dodgers a 4-2 lead and it appeared that they were going to sweep the struggling Marlins. It was Pederson’s 10th home run of the season – tops on the team.

Unfortunately for the Dodgers, those would be the last runs that they would score while the Marlins added three more in the top of the seventh inning when Dodgers reliever Chris Hatcher allowed all three of his inherited runners to score on consecutive hits by Martin Prado and Giancarlo Stanton – the first two batters that Hatcher faced.

In the past 10 days Hatcher has allowed five inherited runners to score, more than any other Dodger reliever. On May 4 he turned a 3-2 Dodgers lead over the last place Milwaukee Brewers into a no-decision for Clayton Kershaw and a blown save and a loss for himself. On Wednesday, Hatcher turned left-hander Adam Liberatore’s perfect 0-0 record and perfect 0.00 ERA into a loss and a 1.86 ERA while blowing his second save in less than two weeks.

In addition to the 5-4 loss to the Marlins, the Dodgers also lost hard-throwing right-hander Pedro Baez, who had to come out of the game with what Dodgers manager Don Mattingly called a pectoral muscle strain.

“Petey felt something up in his pec there,” said Mattingly. “We’ll get that looked at tomorrow for sure. We’ll just wait for the results tomorrow but when a guy comes out of the game, usually it’s not that great.”

There was some good news on Wednesday night. Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen completed his final rehab start with the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes throwing a 1-2-3 inning with a fly out and two strikeouts and appears to be on-track for his scheduled return to the team on Saturday.

Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen is expected to be reactivated from the disabled list on Saturday.
(Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

The silver lining to the Baez injury is that should he need to go on the DL (which it certainly appears that he will), Jansen will slide right into his spot on the Dodgers 25-man roster. Mattingly has repeatedly said that he will not put Jansen right into the closer role upon his return, but will try to get him a couple of clean, low-stress innings of work first.