LOS ANGELES — Kiké Hernandez was sitting in traffic in late May, wrecked emotionally while thinking his season, and possibly his career, was in jeopardy.
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On Tuesday in the Dodgers’ dugout, with the smile back on his face, Hernandez was sitting on the ledge above the bench and knocking on the wood beneath him.
“I feel pretty good,” he said.
That was far from the case some nine weeks ago, when Hernandez was in his car while receiving the diagnosis of a Grade 3 oblique tear following an MRI. He had just played his first two games of the season following offseason elbow surgery.
One lengthy rehab behind him, while another was on the way, was almost too much to bear.
“I’m not a doctor or anything, but I think I experienced my first panic attack or anxiety attack as I was driving,” Hernandez said. “Sitting in traffic, I had to call my wife, and I could barely talk. But I was like, ‘Look, this is what happened. I don’t know what’s going on with my body. Maybe I’m too old.’ But just hearing her calmed me down. I took a couple deep breaths and I was good to go.”
Hernandez, who turns 35 in late August, was not in the starting lineup on Tuesday, and he is not expected to start in the current series with the Seattle Mariners scheduled to start three consecutive right-handers. But a run of lefties appears to be ahead when the Boston Red Sox come to town beginning Friday.
“When he came back a month ago or whenever it was, came out swinging the bat well,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “Trying to figure out when to get him in the lineup. So that’s exciting.”
In his two games in late May, Hernandez was 4 for 4 at the plate with a home run and two doubles. But he was dealing with the oblique injury the whole time after it showed up in batting practice before his season debut.
“The best way that you can take things one day at a time is focusing on what you can do today to get better. And that’s what I did,” said Hernandez, who credited a stem-cell injection for jumpstarting his recovery. “… I was just literally going one day at a time and trying to be the best rehabber I could. And then during the game, I was trying to be the best teammate that I could.”
Never shy to offer a unique perspective, he said he caught a break during the early stages of his recovery, which included sitting in a hyperbaric chamber daily.
“Lucky for me, my body protected me,” Hernandez said. “I didn’t poop for like six days after I got hurt. People said that was excruciating, but I didn’t experience that.”
After two injuries and a pair of long-term rehabilitation stints, perhaps fortunes have indeed changed. Hernandez said definitively that he won’t be playing scared.
“The way that I play the game, I only know one speed, and that’s all out,” he said. “I tried to (ease up) in my first couple of rehab assignment games, and it was like, ‘You know what, just play free.’ So the way that I am, I just play, and if it goes, it goes. But I can’t change the way that I play because I don’t know how to play any other way.”
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To get Hernandez on the active roster, infielder Alex Freeland was optioned back to Triple-A Oklahoma City.
“I told him just briefly how impressed I was, how professional he was, and how he handled himself, and learned while he wasn’t playing,” Roberts said. “And just go down there and get some opportunities to play every day.”
MORE ON THE WAY
While left-hander Blake Snell is expected to make his third, and possibly final rehab start at Triple-A on Wednesday, right-hander Tyler Glasnow will pitch a simulated game against hitters also on Wednesday. Glasnow’s next outing could be in a minor league game.
Snell has been out for most of the season following a procedure to remove loose bodies in his elbow, while Glasnow has been out since early May with a lower back injury.
Roberts even said that catcher Will Smith has started baseball activities again. Smith has been out since early June with inflammation in his neck.
“Pain-free, as he has been for the last week,” Roberts said of Smith. “But I’m excited to hear that he is starting some baseball activities. So that’s probably lifting some weights, throwing, getting his core moving and swinging the bat.”
WAIT MODE
Not only does Shohei Ohtani not have a bullpen session scheduled in the near future, there isn’t even a casual throwing session scheduled.
Without a start on the mound since July 3, or a bullpen since the road trip, getting Ohtani back to a full starter’s load will take time.
“He’s a starting pitcher, so when you miss three, four, five weeks of that (starter’s) build up, then you gotta kind of start up again,” Roberts said.
While Ohtani continues to operate as a hitter, and has been able to handle himself on the basepaths, the discomfort in his left knee gives him issues when he pitches.
UP NEXT
Mariners (RHP Emerson Hancock, 6-4, 3.16 ERA) at Dodgers (LHP Eric Lauer, 5-5, 4.83), Wednesday, 7:10 p.m., SportsNet LA, 570 AM, 1020 AM
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