As the painful memory of yet another early postseason exit by the Dodgers slowly begins to fade, there’s no time like the present to look back on the many great moments and memories from the just-concluded 2015 seasons. And while it is always easier to recall those great moments that happened late in the season – especially during the final few weeks – there were many that occurred early in the new season.

Without question the first great memory of 2015 occurred on Opening Day when newly-acquired veteran shortstop Jimmy Rollins thrilled Dodger fans with his exciting (and unexpected) game-winning three-run home run in the bottom of the eighth-inning to turn a 3-3 tie into a 6-3 Dodgers win over the San Diego Padres.

16-year MLB veteran Jimmy Rollins worked an 0-2 count into an eight-pitch full count before hitting his first home run as a Dodger on Opening Day. (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

And who can forget the incredible three-home run game that Dodgers first baseman Adrian Gonzalez had two nights later against those same Padres – all solo shots and all off of Padres right-hander Andrew Cashner. AGon would end up hitting five home runs in his first three games – a new MLB record – and run away with the NL Player of the Month honors for April 2015. During the first month of the new season, Gonzalez posted a triple-slash of .383/.432/.790 with eight home runs, nine doubles and 19 runs batted in.

Gonzalez made MLB history by hitting five home runs in his team’s first three games of a new season – including this one – his third of the night on April 8, 2015. (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

And then there was Alex Guerrero’s unbelievable ninth-inning pinch-hit grand slam home run at Coors Field on June 2 that turned an 8-5 deficit into an improbable (if not impossible) 9-8 Dodgers win over the Colorado Rockies. Although the struggling 28-year-old Las Tunas, Cuba native would finish the 2015 campaign with a lackluster .233 batting average, he finished his first full season in the big leagues with 11 home runs – five as a pinch-hitter.

Guerrero’s dramatic game-winning pinch-hit grand slam against the Rockies on June 2 was definitely among the greatest moments of the season for the Dodgers. (Photo credit – Isaiah J. Downing)

Of course it is impossible to go through a full season and not have at least one great Clayton Kershaw moment and 2015 was no exception. There were a lot of Dodger fans (and even Mets fans) holding their collective breaths on July 23 when the three-time NL Cy Young award winner and defending 2014 NL MVP took a perfect game into the bottom half of the seventh inning at Citi Field in what ended up being a 3-0 complete-game three-hit shutout – one of his league-leading three shutouts and league-leading four complete games on the season for the Dodgers left-hander.

Kershaw struck out 11 Mets batters on July 23 when he took a perfect game into the seventh inning at Citi Field. (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

Under the category of weirdest play – which also happens to be my personal favorite play of the season – was the unbelievable behind the back completely blind tag by Dodgers reliever J.P. Howell on a wild pitch to preserve a 0-0 tie in the top of the 13th inning against the Arizona Diamondbacks on May 3 – a game that the Dodgers eventually won in the bottom of the inning on a Yasmani Grandal walk-off solo home.

What about you? What was your favorite Dodgers memory of 2015?