Friday night’s game against the San Francisco Giants can basically be summed up in two pitches – one pitch, one out for Dodgers ace Kershaw and one pitch, one run for Giants ace Madison Bumgarner. Oh sure, there were a lot more pitches pitches on the night and a combined 10 runs scored, but those first two pitches for each respective starting pitcher set the tone for what was to come.

What came was a first-pitch fly out to center by Giants leadoff hitter Angel Pagan off of Kershaw and a first-pitch monster home run by Dodgers leadoff hitter Kiké Hernandez to very deep left-center field off of Bumgarner – and by very deep, we’re talking 456 feet per ESPN’s Home Run Tracker, who ranked it as the fourth longest home run of the season thus far.

But Hernandez wasn’t finished after only one pitch – not by a long shot (literally). In his second at-bat against Bumgarner in the bottom of the third inning, Hernandez hit a second home run – this one to straightaway left field and only 426 feet.

But wait, there’s more!

In his third at-bat against Bumgarner in the fourth inning, Hernandez scorched a double down the left field line that scored two more runs in the eventual 7-3 Dodgers victory over their archrivals.

“He’s just such a team guy, and jovial, but he’s an intense competitor,” said Roberts of Hernandez. “For him to have the night he had was pretty cool.”

Kiké finished the night going 3 for 5 with two home runs, a double, four RBIs, two runs scored and 10 total bases. And while the extremely popular Dodger is now hitting .440 on the season, he is hitting an alien-like .727 against lefties with an off-the-charts 2.205 OPS.

“It kind of makes you focus a little more [batting against Bumgarner] but at the end of the day, it’s just two homers,” Hernandez said. “If I had two homers and we didn’t win, it would’ve been for nothing. The fact that we won is what matters.”

In addition to his smoking hot bat against one of the best pitchers in the game today, Hernandez also made a run-saving diving catch with two outs and runners at second and third in the top of the third inning.

Hernandez’s two-out diving catch prevented two runs from scoring.
(Video capture courtesy of SportsNet LA. Click on image to view video)

With the win, Kershaw improves his records to 2-0 with a 1.64 ERA’s and puts the Dodgers in sole possession of first place in the NL West, one-half game ahead of the Colorado Rockies and one game ahead of the Giants.

Kershaw allowed three runs (two earned) on five hits while striking out six and walking none on Friday evening. (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

Game-2 of the three-game series against the Giants will be at 6:10 pm PT on Saturday evening, with Game-3 on Sunday evening at 5:05 pm PT. Saturday’s match-up has Dodgers left-hander Scott Kazmir going against Giants right-hander Johnny Cueto and Sunday’s match-up pits Dodgers right-hander Kenta Maeda squaring off against Giants right-hander Jeff Samardzija.