by Cary Osborne
Even a Home Run Derby champion could go through it. Even a Silver Slugger or All-Star. It could even happen to a player who delivered one of the biggest hits in a World Series on a 1–2 count with two outs and his team trailing by two runs.
Or a player who is all of the above.
“When you’ve lost your confidence and lost the things you know you can do — and everybody goes through that, it makes things even harder,” Teoscar Hernández said two weeks before the postseason. “But as soon as you find out you don’t have to put so much pressure on yourself, you don’t have to do too much — just practice, work hard and just let the skills and everything you do before the games, just let it happen in games (you’ll be fine).”
Hernández’s admission explains some of the struggles he faced over a big chunk of the 2025 season.
But in the last weeks leading up to the postseason, he seemingly found something. And then he carried it over to the National League Wild Card Series. And then to the NL Division Series.
Hernández hit two home runs, drove in four runs and had three hits in Game 1 of the Wild Card Series against the Reds. Hernández’s three-run home run in the third inning was one of the game’s pivotal moments.
He drove in two runs with a sixth inning double in Wild Card Game 2.
Then on Saturday, his seventh-inning, three-run home run was the difference maker in Philadelphia in Game 1 of the NLDS.
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The thunderbolt ability is a major reason the Dodgers committed three years to Hernández after his All-Star 2024 season. Hernández has been a big-game performer in the postseason. He hit two home runs in Game 2 of the 2022 Wild Card Series for Toronto. His two-run double in the fifth inning of Game 5 of the World Series — on a 1–2 count — tied the score at 5–5.
But the 2025 regular season was uneven. It was three parts in one regular season.
The really good one (First 33 games): .315/.333/.600/.933, nine home runs, 34 RBI, 18.4% strikeout rate
The long one (Next 85 games): .208/.254/.369/.623, 12 home runs, 44 RBI, 28.7% K rate
The stretch run (Final 16 regular season games): .297/.338/.578/.916, four home runs, 11 RBI, 16.2% K rate
The really good one ended when Hernández went on the injured list on May 6 with a left groin strain. His 34 RBI led the Majors at the time.
The long one was more than a hitting slide. Hernández’s defense in right field came into question more often than anyone would have liked.
An Aug. 18 Dodger loss in Colorado illuminated the defensive issues, including one play where Hernández got a bad jump on a bloop hit. The Rockies walked off the Dodgers on the next at-bat.
Manager Dave Roberts said after the loss that Hernández’s defense in right field needed improvement. But he also said the issues weren’t due to a lack of effort.
Roberts repeated that sentiment — that Hernández is making the effort — on Saturday after his defense was questioned again. Roberts also said on Saturday that he and Hernández had a discussion about the defense after the Aug. 18 game. He said he has seen a shift in the right fielder since then.
“It started after that series in Colorado,” Roberts said. “I think that’s when he kind of really turned it on. And it’s a long season for all these guys. But I felt that that’s the point where he was, like, ‘You know what, I’ve got to be better, I’ve got to play better, I’ve got to play better defense, I’ve got to dial up the offense.’”
Hernández said a few weeks before the postseason that the defensive difficulties were hard to explain. But he took accountability.
“I know I can be better than that — what I was showing those weeks,” he said. “You take it personally and push yourself and try to get better every day.
“Honestly, I don’t really know what was going on,” he said. “It’s part of the game. Everyone has to go through that. … It was tough during those days for everybody. I’m glad I can open my eyes at the right time and help the team.”
The right time came at the right time. The Dodgers went 12–4 over that 16-game stretch. They went 15–5 in their final 20 games. They are 3–0 in the postseason.
Hernández said there’s a simple explanation for his success.
“The last three weeks I’ve been trying to do that, not trying to think about anything personal but more what can I do to help this team win tonight,” he said. “That changed everything. Now I’m more focused on the games that are coming in October.”
2025 Postseason: Teoscar turns it around was originally published in Dodger Insider on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.