Sports
Kiké Hernández trying to ‘stay level’ after slow start with Dodgers, live interview error
The silence on the broadcast was deafening.
In a campaign already full of frustration and inconsistency, Kiké Hernández suffered another exasperating low Friday night.
During a choppy in-game interview between Hernández and the Apple TV broadcast duo of Wayne Randazzo and Dontrelle Willis on Friday — a second-inning chat in which the mic’d up Hernández struggled to hear the broadcasters through an on-field earpiece — a ball was hit to the third baseman right as Willis asked him a question.
“You guys are a close-knit ballclub,” Willis said, just as Gleyber Torres sent a two-hopper Hernández’s way. “Where does that come from?”
Hernández didn’t have time to answer.
The ball took a big hop, hit him in the midsection, and resulted in his second error of the year. As Torres pulled into first, neither Hernández nor the broadcasters said anything.
The awkward silence lasted close to 30 seconds.
“What was the previous question, before I made that error?” Hernández finally said, after the broadcasters analyzed the grounder — which Hernández said took a “funky” sideways hop — in his ear.
“I don’t want to ask it again, because I don’t want you to boot the ball again,” Willis joked, trying to infuse the moment with some humor. “I’ll take that E for you, big dog.”
In a split-screen camera shot on the broadcast, a stoic Hernández simply looked forward, focused on the next play.
The entire scene, in hindsight, was a reflection of Hernández’s season so far, one in which the 11-year veteran and Dodgers fan favorite has tried to find the light amid much on-field dismay.
In 50 games to this point, the super-utilityman is batting just .207, second worst on the Dodgers’ active roster ahead of only Chris Taylor.
He also has 31 strikeouts. His OPS is under .600. And he has spent considerable time trying to refine his once-productive swing, recording near-daily observations in a notebook in his locker amid a tedious process of trial and error.
“I feel like I’m, little by little, making progress,” Hernández said. “But you don’t just get rid of bad habits from one day to the next.”
Especially bad habits, Hernández believes, that were multiple years in the making.
After his initial six-season stint with the Dodgers ended following their 2020 World Series championship, Hernández spent three years with the Boston Red Sox, where he signed as a free agent.
The first went well, when he hit 20 home runs to help Boston reach the American League Championship Series. The latter two, however, were clunkers, caused in part by a pair of sports hernia injuries that hampered his swing.
“I was hurt for two years,” Hernández said. “And when you’re playing hurt, you compensate in many ways.”
Hernández did finish last season decently, batting .262 after being traded back to the Dodgers at the midseason deadline. Before re-signing in L.A. on a one-year deal this offseason, Hernández also underwent surgery to repair his hernias, allowing him to enter this season back at full health.
“He looks great,” manager Dave Roberts said in spring training. “He’s moving like Kiké of old.”
Swinging like the Kiké of old, though, has proved a taller task over the first couple months.
Mental cues and mechanical thoughts Hernández once relied upon have taken little effect (a problem Taylor also cited after a couple injury-plagued seasons). And while Hernández’s body is no longer ailing, he said, the bad habits he developed have been slow to fully dissipate.
“Bad habits for a couple weeks are hard to get rid of. For a couple months, even harder,” Hernández said. “[For me], it was years. It’s a lot. So just trying to put in the work and understand, maybe there are things that click here or there, but for it to become consistent it’s gonna take some time.”
With a deep breath, he added, “I’ve been giving grace to myself every once in a while … It’s about riding the roller coaster and figuring out a way to stay level, stay present in the moment.”
Friday’s mid-broadcast error presented his latest test.
While Hernández didn’t blame the error on his in-game interview — “I think that ball would have hit my [midsection] regardless of whether I was wearing a mic or not,” he quipped — the veteran did acknowledge the awkward nature of the moment.
“You get exposed and then everybody talks about, ‘You made an error because you had a mic on,’ ” he said, later adding: “You can say it’s embarrassing, because you’re in the spotlight. You’re talking as the play is happening.”
Hernández also clarified a pithy quote he gave to the Associated Press in the postgame clubhouse that night, when he was asked if he would reconsider doing future in-game interviews — for which players are paid $10,000 for their participation.
“No, because we’re getting paid,” he told the AP. “I like money.”
Two days later, he said that the comment was meant to be sarcastic.
“I gave a very ‘me’ answer,” said Hernández, who has long been the Dodgers’ equivalent of a class clown in the clubhouse. “[The AP story] took it literally.”
Roberts didn’t initially realize Hernández was being interviewed at the time of his error, but brushed the whole situation aside with reporters on Saturday.
While Roberts noted he probably wouldn’t have done in-game interviews in his playing days, he understood why some current players like Hernández (who has done in-game interviews “four or five” times in his MLB career, he said) agree to them regularly.
“It’s part of sports now,” Roberts said. “Unfortunately, Kiké made an error. It’s not the only error he’s ever made.”
Asked if he spoke to Hernández about the play afterward, Roberts said there was no need.
“He prepares,” Roberts said. “I know he likes the limelight. He’s into the social media thing. He still plays hard, practices hard, but he still likes to build his brand. So I get it. I’m OK with it. He plays his butt off.”
For all the ways Hernández’s season has gone awry so far, Roberts seemed intent on making that latter message clear.
The Dodgers, after all, still trust Hernández with regular playing time, especially lately with Max Muncy sidelined by an oblique injury.
They’ve praised his defensive improvements from last year, when his 18 errors were fifth most in the majors.
And they remain optimistic in his potential at the plate, hopeful Hernández’s four-game hitting steak to end last week’s trip to Pittsburgh and New York (including a tie-breaking home run Saturday night at Yankee Stadium) can help erase the frustration that has accompanied his slow start.
“He wants to perform, like all players do, but he sometimes tries to get four hits in one at-bat,” Roberts said, preaching patience amid Hernández’s early-season struggles. “[Lately], he’s not swinging as much at balls off the plate. And he’s using the whole field. So, for me, the at-bat quality is better. That’s what I’m looking for, for him, regardless of results right now.”
Clayton Kershaw update
Clayton Kershaw could be close to a minor league rehab assignment, after pitching two simulated innings with the Dodgers’ low-A Rancho Cucamonga affiliate Friday.
According to Roberts, Kershaw touched 90 mph with his fastball during the session — a mark he struggled to reach late last season, when he was dogged by a shoulder injury that eventually required offseason surgery.
Kershaw, who is hopeful of returning to a big league mound by July or August, will throw three simulated innings this coming week. After that, the team will decide whether he is ready for a rehab assignment (the last precursor to his long-awaited return).
Bobby Miller not yet ready
Right-handed starting pitcher Bobby Miller will likely make at least one more outing in his current rehab assignment, Roberts said, as the 25-year-old continues to work his way back from a shoulder injury.
While Roberts was initially hopeful of getting Miller back this week — the club’s 2023 rookie star hasn’t pitched since early April — he said Sunday that the team is now leaning toward continuing Miller’s rehab assignment another week.
Miller has made three rehab starts with Rancho Cucamonga and triple-A Oklahoma City, working into the fifth inning of a one-run, two-strikeout outing last Friday.
Short hops
Miguel Rojas has been battling “overall soreness” in his leg the last couple weeks, Roberts said, leading the manager to “pick my spots” with Rojas’ playing time “to try and keep him as fresh as possible.” Despite his .283 batting average this season, Rojas has started back-to-back games just once in the last month. … Injured pitchers Dustin May (elbow surgery) and Brusdar Graterol (shoulder) have both been throwing bullpen sessions at the club’s Arizona complex lately, Robert said. May reportedly eclipsed the 90-mph mark … Muncy has been taking dry swings in recent days, but is still on a “slow program,” Roberts said, with his timeline to return remaining unclear.
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
A lot of history has a chance to be made when it comes to the MLB MVP awards this season.
Let’s check out the odds for the AL and NL MVP race at FanDuel Sportsbook as of July 16.
This page may contain affiliate links to legal sports betting partners. If you sign up or place a wager, FOX Sports may be compensated. Read more about Sports Betting on FOX Sports.
American League MVP
Yordan Alvarez: -165 (bet $10 to win $16.06 total)
Junior Caminero: +450 (bet $10 to win $55 total)
Bobby Witt Jr.: +500 (bet $10 to win $60 total)
Ben Rice: +1400 (bet $10 to win $150 total)
Nick Kurtz: +2000 (bet $10 to win $210 total)
Julio Rodriguez: +4500 (bet $10 to win $460 total)
Shea Langeliers: +5500 (bet $10 to win $560 total)
What to know: We’re going to have a new AL MVP. Two-time defending AL MVP Aaron Judge has not played since May due to injury. His three MVP awards are tied with a host of MLB legends for the third-most all-time, including Yankee icons Mickey Mantle, Joe DiMaggio and Yogi Berra. However, he’ll have to wait to get his fourth, according to the current odds. The name atop the board is Houston’s Yordan Alvarez, who is leading the AL in home runs (31), hits (111), RBIs (70), on-base percentage (.426), slugging percentage (.633) and OPS (1.059). He is also second in the league in batting average (.318).
National League MVP
Shohei Ohtani: -1500 (bet $10 to win $10.67 total)
Pete Crow-Armstrong: +750 (bet $10 to win $85 total)
Kyle Schwarber: +3000 (bet $10 to win $310 total)
James Wood: +4000 (bet $10 to win $410 total)
Juan Soto: +4000 (bet $10 to win $410 total)
Corbin Carroll: +6500 (bet $10 to win $660 total)
Otto Lopez: +6500 (bet $10 to win $660 total)
What to know: It appears Ohtani is gonna do this thing again, mostly because of his combination of pitching and hitting. At the plate, he’s third in the NL in OBP (.403), third in OPS (.952), fifth in home runs (22) and fifth in slugging (.549). And on the mound, he’s 8-2 in 14 starts with a 1.79 ERA, 0.95 WHIP and 95 strikeouts. Yeesh. Last season, Ohtani won back-to-back NL MVP awards for the first time since Albert Pujols did it in 2008 and 2009. He also won the AL MVP in 2023, making him the first player in MLB history to win MVP back-to-back in each league. This year, if Ohtani is to win NL MVP, he will make a dent in Barry Bonds’ record of four straight MVP wins (2001-2004). All four of Ohtani’s MVP wins have been unanimous, with him receiving all 30 first-place votes. He has the second-most MVPs in history, trailing only Bonds’ seven.
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — If something happened once, it can happen again. That’s kind of what Yogi Berra was getting at when he said “it’s like deja vu all over again.”
Berra, the late Yankee catcher and once New Jersey’s unofficial poet laureate, spent most of his life within walking distance of East Rutherford, N.J., where history could repeat itself all over again in Sunday’s World Cup final between Spain and Argentina. And that makes his words newly relevant.
Argentina and Lionel Messi, the reigning champions, will be seeking to become the first to repeat in 64 years while Spain will be playing in the title game for just the second time ever. And the similarities to its first trip, in 2010, are uncanny.
Sixteen years ago Spain became just the second reigning European champion to win a World Cup. It will enter Sunday’s game as the reigning European champion.
In the run-up to the 2010 World Cup, Spain ran off a 35-game unbeaten streak, which matched the longest in history at the time. La Roja will enter Sunday’s game with a 37-game unbeaten streak, which matches the current longest streak in history.
And that 2010 team was known for an absence of ego and a depth of character, a blue-collar collection of quiet superstars built around a core of Andrés Iniesta, Xavi Hernández and Carles Puyol, players who emphasized humility, unity and selflessness.
This team? It’s the same.
“We’re one big family,” center back Pau Cubarsí said in Spanish.
A family that has already achieved its goal, according to coach Luis de la Fuente. So while Argentina may be feeling the pressure of chasing World Cup history, De la Fuente said his team is playing with house money
“I don’t believe in the idea that finals are there to be won. They’re there to be enjoyed,” he said. “What’s to come could be the icing on the cake.”
Of course a cake is nothing without the icing. But then Spain hasn’t had to separate joy from success in this World Cup, enjoying an unbeaten run to the final whose only blemish has been a tournament-opening draw with Cape Verde.
That was the first of six clean sheets for Spanish keeper Unai Simón, though it’s really been a group effort with Simón facing an average of just two shots on goal a game.
“This team never ceases to amaze me,” De la Fuente said. “The scope for improvement is endless. It was a labor of love, a process. It was about reaching the crucial moment in the best possible shape.”
De la Fuente, 65, whose only senior international appearance as a player came in the 1988 Olympics, coached Spain’s U-23 team to a silver medal in the Tokyo Games in 2021 then took over the national team a year later, after it crashed out of a second straight World Cup in the round of 16.
De la Fuente spent nearly two decades coaching at the youth level, including nine years with Spain’s U19 and U21 national teams. But seven months after taking over the senior team, he led later Spain to its first UEFA Nations League title and a year after that it won its first Champions League title in more than a decade. La Roja has lost just twice in 48 games under De la Fuente, who has the highest winning percentage of any man who has managed more than nine games for Spain.
Given his background, De la Fuente trusts young players — with an average age of 26.7, Spain has the sixth-youngest roster in the World Cup — and his starting lineup includes two teenagers in Cubarsí and forward Lamine Yamal. The core of the team — Simón, Mikel Merino, Dani Olmo, Rodri, Mikel Oyarzabal, Fabián Ruiz — are players he coached to European youth-level championships and ones he has known for half their lives.
That has given the team a level of familiarity and trust that goes both ways.
“This team never ceases to amaze me,” the coach said. “The scope for improvement is endless. It was a labor of love, a process. It was about reaching the crucial moment in the best possible shape.”
And they’ve gotten there, said right back Pedro Porro, another product of De la Fuente’s youth teams, by all pulling in the same direction.
“From the very first day we got here — not just me, but the whole team — we’ve been working toward a common goal,” Porro said. “That’s part of the process. There are no excuses.”
That, too, is something De la Fuente brought to the job, though it’s not an original concept for Spain. It’s more like deja vu all over again.
“We are ordinary, generous people,” the coach said. “We’ve recaptured the spirit of 2010.”
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
The ESPYS brought some of the biggest names in sports and entertainment to New York City on Wednesday night, a day that typically ranks among the slowest on the sports calendar.
But this year’s ceremony was preceded by a World Cup semifinal match in Atlanta that was already being described as an instant classic. Lionel Messi and Argentina punched their ticket to a second straight World Cup final with a win over England. The defending champions will meet Spain on Saturday in nearby New Jersey, just a short trip across the Hudson River from where comedian Marcello Hernández opened the ESPYS.
The “Saturday Night Live” star wasted little time taking a few jabs at Jake Paul, Tiger Woods and other sports figures.
ESPN’S JOHN BUCCIGROSS NAMES HIS MOUNT RUSHMORE OF ALL-TIME SPORTSCENTER ANCHORS
Marcello Hernández speaks onstage during the 2026 ESPY Awards at David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center in New York City. (Mike Coppola/Getty Images)
“Mike Tyson ripped my watch off. Welcome to the ESPYS!” Hernández joked after making a boxing-style entrance in a robe with Tyson as part of his entourage.
“I must say, it’s an honor to be here among so many great athletes, and Jake Paul,” Hernández began in his roughly 10-minute monologue.
Paul appeared to take the joke in stride, laughing and applauding as cameras cut to him in the crowd. Hernández then stayed on the YouTube star-turned-boxer, needling him over his history of fighting older opponents.
“Jake, that’s just a joke. Don’t fight me,” Hernández continued. “My dad and my stepdad are both here. They’re over 50, and I know that’s how you like them. So, fight them instead.”
Paul kept laughing as Hernández’s bit played out, eventually closing with the comedian shifting attention to his father and stepfather, who were shown in the audience.
Atmosphere at the 2026 ESPYS at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Square on July 15, 2026, in New York, New York. (Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty Images)
Hernández later used Caleb Williams’ “Madden 27” cover as a lead into Woods.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM
“I want to congratulate Caleb Williams, the quarterback for the Chicago Bears, who will be on the cover of the new Madden video game. Congratulations to Caleb,” Hernández said, before adding, “And Tiger Woods will be on the cover of Grand Theft Auto.”
Woods was arrested in Florida in March on charges of DUI after a car crash. The arrest report said a deputy found pain pills in his pocket and observed signs of impairment at the scene. Woods later announced he would take time away from golf to seek treatment.
Hernández also worked North Carolina football coach Bill Belichick into the monologue, using the 74-year-old’s relationship with Jordon Hudson as part of a joke about the New York Knicks’ title drought.
“The Knicks won their first championship since 1973. And to put into perceptive how long ago that was, in 1973 hockey players didn’t wear helmets, basketball had no three point line. And in 1973, Bill Belichick was the age his girlfriend is now.”
The Knicks later took home the ESPY for Best Team.
Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, OG Anunoby and other members of the 2025-26 Knicks championship team took the stage to accept the award, but Josh Hart was noticeably absent. Brunson drew laughs when he joked, “I want to say thank you to the ESPYS for pulling Josh Hart’s invite.”
Earlier in the night Brunson also received the “Best Championship Performance” award.
Jalen Brunson accepts the Best Championship Performance award onstage during the 2026 ESPY Awards at David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center in New York City on July 15, 2026. (Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for W+P)
Former NBA player Jason Collins, who died in May at age 47 following a battle with Stage 4 glioblastoma, posthumously received the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage. Former MLB pitcher Jim Abbott received the Jimmy V Award for Perseverance, while Scott Ruskan was honored with the Pat Tillman Award for Service.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
The ESPYS are held every summer, bringing together top athletes and other stars to celebrate the best moments from the past year in sports while honoring figures recognized for courage, service and impact. In past years, the ceremony has been held in Los Angeles, but shifted to New York this year.
Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.
-
Florida4 minutes ago‘Experimental explosion’ reported off Central Florida coast, experts say
-
Georgia10 minutes agoEverything From Georgia Tech LB Kyle Efford At ACC Media Days
-
Hawaii16 minutes agoNew Honolulu police chief plans to launch drone program to help catch crime
-
Idaho22 minutes agoBoating, beaches, and mountain scenery: Escape to this bright blue Idaho reservoir
-
Illinois28 minutes ago
Illinois awards AD Josh Whitman a new contract worth more than $31 million over the next 10 years
-
Indiana34 minutes agoWATCH | Drone video captures Big Boy rolling through Northwest Indiana
-
Iowa40 minutes agoJaylen Raynor Wisely Predicted To Be Starting Quarterback for Iowa State Football
-
Kansas46 minutes ago
Chiefs Name Burns & McDonnell as Owner’s Representative for New Practice Facility and Headquarters in Olathe
