During the course of a 162-game season, there are games, individual games, which seem to change a team’s destiny for that entire season – games that earn the status of ‘remember that game’ or ‘remember the time.’

Sunday’s exciting 5-2 Dodgers win over the San Diego Padres at Petco Park may very well have been one such game.

“There’s nothing like it,” 25-year-old Dodgers rookie Michael Busch said postgame of his 10th-inning, two-out, game-winning, pinch-hit single, driving in Dodgers first baseman and placed runner Freddie Freeman from second base. “It’s very sweet to help this team get a win, especially in a place like this. It’s a tough place to win and getting two out of three here, I think that’s pretty big for the team.”

“He’s really good,” Dodgers perennial All-Star outfielder Mookie Betts, who hit a game-tying solo home run in the top of the ninth, said of Outman. “I was telling my family back in February, before Spring Training started, that everybody needs to watch out for him because he’s very, very good at baseball.”

With the win, the Dodgers are now 21-14 on the season and in first place in the National League West with a 1.5-game lead over the second place Arizona Diamondbacks and a 3.0-game lead over the Padres.

Even though there are still 127 games remaining in the 2023 regular season for the Dodgers, it’s hard to argue that Sunday’s exciting extra-innings 5-2 win over their division rivals wasn’t one of those potential destiny and season-changing games for them.

Play Ball!

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