In the big scheme of things, being the victim of a no-hitter – even a highly controversial one – isn’t all that big of a deal for the Dodgers. In fact, even though it was the second time that the Dodgers have been no-hit in nine days and was witnessed by millions nationally on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball, it didn’t change the standings in the extremely tight National League West race; this thanks to the Cardinals beating the second-place Giants earlier in the day. But what is a big deal – an extremely big deal – is the loss of super-sub-turned-everyday-center-fielder Kiké Hernandez to a hamstring injury – the third such injury to befall a Dodger regular in the last three weeks.

While much of the national baseball attention is and will continue to be on Jake Arrieta’s first career no-hitter on Sunday night, the Dodgers anxiously await the result of an MRI to Hernandez’s left hamstring, which will take place later this morning.

The grimace on Kiké Hernandez’s face shows exactly when he injured his left hamstring in Sunday night’s 2-0 no-hit loss to the Chicago Cubs. (Photo credit: Ron Cervenka – Click on image to enlarge)

Hernandez suffered the injury while trying desperately to leg out a grounder in the bottom of the eighth inning that would have ended Arrieta’s no-no, which actually should have ended in the third inning. In that inning, Hernandez absolutely smoked a ground ball to Starlin Castro that the Cubs second baseman couldn’t handle. And while the ball deflected off of Castro’s chest, it was a play that few (if any) second baseman could have made. But instead of ruling the play a hit as nearly everybody thought it was, official scorer Jerry White ruled it an error, thus keeping Arrieta’s no-hitter intact.

“The ball was hit right at him,” White told L.A. Times Dodgers beat reporter Steve Dilbeck. “Hit hard, but ordinary effort. I thought if he stays down on the ball, he makes the play. He came up thinking the ball was coming up. When he did, the ball kicked off his mitt and, in my opinion, E4.”

By every indication White seems be the only person who saw the play as an error instead of a hit. Even Arrieta himself thought it should have been ruled a hit.

“I thought it was a hit, I really did,” Arrieta said during his post-game interview with ESPN. “I thought it was a tough play. Hernandez hit it well. It was a tough short-hop for Castro, but you know, they scored it as an error, thankfully so – I was able to finish it.”

Dodgers second baseman Chase Utley strikes out swinging for the final out of Jake Arrieta’s first career no-hitter – the sixth of the season and the second against the Dodgers in the last nine days. (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

As for the Dodgers, they also thought it was a hit.

“Are you kidding me?” said Dodgers first baseman Adrian Gonzalez. “I asked five of their players when they were on base. They all said it should have been a hit. But you know? He threw a great game. Hats off to him. It goes down as a no-hitter, but at the end of the day, the only thing that matters is that we lost. How it happened doesn’t matter.”

Even though Rule 10.01 allows official scorers up to 24 hours to change their ruling on a play, there is absolutely no way that White is going to do so in an otherwise no-hitter. That being said, the general consensus is that had there been even one additional (clean) hit, White probably would have reversed his decision on the Castro error. But alas, it is what it is.

As for Kiké’s injury, that’s another story entirely. The loss of the 24-year-old San Juan, Puerto Rico native could prove to be devastating for the Dodgers. The extremely popular utility player and creator of the “Rally Banana” was hitting a team-high .308 with six home runs and 21 RBIs in the 71 games in which he has played. In fact, Hernandez was so effective both offensively and defensively that he supplanted rookie superstar Joc Pederson as the Dodgers everyday center fielder. Ironically, Sunday night was the first regular season game that Hernandez played third base since being acquired by the Dodgers last off-season in the trade that sent speedster Dee Gordon to the Miami Marlins. Hernandez was giving regular Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner a much-needed day off.

The loss of Hernandez puts the Dodgers front office in a bit of a bind. Although the team will be allowed to expand their roster tomorrow, the only guy who has consistently been tearing it up at Triple-A Oklahoma City with the bat is 21-year-old top shortstop prospect Corey Seager. But Dodgers President of Baseball Operations Andrew Friedman said as recently as yesterday that they will not bring Seager up “just to bring him up” and would only do so if there was a genuine need to do so (say… like… because of an injury to their best hitter). And it is certainly no coincidence that Seager has been seeing more playing time at third base with the OKC Dodgers recently – including on Sunday night against the El Paso Chihuahuas.

Word on the severity of Hernandez’s hamstring injury should be known prior to today’s extremely crucial three-game series opener against the Giants at Dodger Stadium, but knowing the Dodgers’ luck with hamstrings of late, the news probably won’t be good.