Before Tuesday night, the Dodgers had already put a position player on the mound once in the season. Miguel Rojas pitched the last two innings of the Dodgers' 16-0 shutout loss to the Cubs on April 12 (and Rojas gave up five of those) and tried to lighten the mood by imitating some of his teammates' wind-ups on the mound. On Tuesday, Kiké Hernández got to make his pitching debut under much nicer circumstances.
He entered in the top of the ninth to serve as the Dodgers' closer for the evening, after the Dodgers had already scored 15 runs to the Marlins' two. Every player in the starting lineup except Max Muncy got at least one hit, and Shohei Ohtani hit his first home run since becoming a dad.
Hernández, always one to bring levity to any situation, walked onto the mound wearing a Dodgers' protective visor over his cap. He got his first out quickly when Connor Norby hit a 37.3 MPH eephus to Max Muncy, who flipped it to first. Even though he gave up two singles, the Marlins failed to score another run when Graham Pauley and Javier Sanoja grounded out and popped out.
After the game, Hernández commemorated his pitching debut with an Instagram post that was characteristically a little NSFW but also included a debrief of his performance.
He wrote, "As far as my job on the mound, I’m pretty happy about it. Induced a lot of weak contact, painted the corners with the cutter and had a 40mph spread! When it comes to covering 1st base, I’ll be out there with the pitchers next time they have PFP’s."
Kiké Hernandez closed out the Dodgers W in style 🤣 pic.twitter.com/0eIDiWomul
— B/R Walk-Off (@BRWalkoff) April 30, 2025
Kiké Hernández marked his Dodgers' pitching debut in blowout vs. Marlins with hilarious Instagram post
The Marlins were quick to jump on opener Jack Dreyer in the top of the first, with a leadoff triple from Xavier Edwards and an RBI single for Dane Myers, but the Dodgers responded with three runs against Sandy Alcantara in the bottom of the inning, including that leadoff Ohtani homer. Teoscar Hernández added another in the next inning, and the Dodgers forced an early exit for Alcantara in the third when they tacked on three more.
The Dodgers' offense has surpassed double digits, surpassing their season high of 10 against the Cubs, when the Marlins were finally able to score their second run of the night. All told, Freddie Freeman, Michael Conforto and Muncy were the only starting Dodgers who didn't get in on the RBI action.
It might've just been against the Marlins, but it was still nice to watch the Dodgers completely dominate, and Hernández's antics at the end were a nice little cherry on top.