Kiké Hernandez thwarts censors after lifting Dodgers to NLCS date with Mets

Yoshinobu Yamamoto defeated Yu Darvish in a historic playoff game of Japanese-born starters, and the Los Angeles Dodgers got home runs from Kiké Hernández and Teoscar Hernández to beat the San Diego Padres 2-0 Friday night and advance to the National League Championship Series. .

Yamamoto allowed two hits in five innings for the Dodgers before being pulled after 63 pitches in a decisive Game 5 between heated rivals meeting in an NL Division Series for the third time in five years.

The Dodgers will play Pete Alonso and the New York Mets in the best-of-seven NLCS on Sunday evening in Los Angeles.

The Dodgers won a decisive Game 5 at home for the first time since winning an NL Division Series against Houston in 1981, after a season split in two following a players’ strike. With the Majors’ best regular-season record of 98–64, they successfully avoided a third consecutive NLDS elimination.

Afterwards, Kiké Hernández, the Puerto Rican veteran making his eighth playoff appearance with the Dodgers, caused a stir during a televised postgame interview when he was asked, “What’s different about this particular team?”

Hernández asked: “Are we live?”

Rosenthal replied: “We are live.”

Hernández then said, “The fact that we don’t care.”

The Padres’ big players went bankrupt when their season was on the line. Three-time batting champion Luis Arraez, Fernando Tatis Jr, Jurickson Profar and Manny Machado were 1 for 14 in Game 5, while San Diego’s final 19 batters were retired.

San Diego went scoreless through the final 24 innings of the series, dropping its final two games after taking a 2-1 lead at home.

Yamamoto and Darvish were the first Japanese-born starting pitchers to face each other in Major League playoff history. The 26-year-old Yamamoto was the fifth rookie to start a winner-take-all game in Dodgers history.