Without exception, there is a specific point during every Major League Baseball season that you can put your finger on as the defining moment of the season for a team.

For the 2020 Dodgers, that defining moment actually occurred even before the COVID-19-shortened season began, when they acquired future Hall of Fame outfielder Mookie Betts on February 10, 2020.

Betts would finish the 60-game regular season with a .292 / .366 / .562 / .927 slash line, 16 home runs, 39 RBI, and a team-leading 10 stolen bases. His acquisition was, in every sense, the defining moment of the 2020 season.

Although it took until their 111th game, the NL West second-place Dodgers may very well have their 2021 defining moment, and arguably from a somewhat unlikely source.

On July 30, 2021, the Dodgers acquired future Hall of Fame right-hander Max Scherzer and middle infielder Trea Turner (who arrived a week late due to a positive COVID-19 test) from the Washington Nationals in exchange for right-hander Josiah Gray and top catching prospect Keibert Ruiz. Although the 37-year-old Scherzer would win his first game in Dodger Blue over the hated Houston Astros on August 4 at a sold-out Dodger Stadium, it would be Trea Turner’s first game as the Dodgers second baseman on Saturday evening, August 7, that fans may put their finger on as their team’s 2021 defining moment.

In his first at-bat on Saturday against the Angels of Anaheim at Dodger Stadium and as the Dodgers leadoff batter, Turner drew a six-pitch walk. He then scored – from first base – on a Max Muncy double into the left-center field gap. It had been a very long time since Dodger fans had seen a Dodger with this kind of speed. Not even beloved former Dodger Dee Gordon had this kind of speed. Turner would later easily steal second base after singling to right in the bottom of the fifth inning.

It is often said that “hitting is contagious.” So, too, apparently is base running.

On Sunday afternoon, Turner again scored from first base, this time on a single by Dodgers left fielder AJ Pollock. With (apparently) Trea-Turner-induced newfound spring in their step, Pollock and Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner would pull off a double steal of third and second bases in the bottom of the first inning, and center fielder Chris Taylor of second base in the bottom of the fifth inning. It was Pollock’s sixth stolen base of the season, Justin Turner’s first, and Taylor’s team-leading (for now) 11th.

Suffice to say, for a Dodgers team that currently ranks 22nd in all of baseball with (now) 40 combined stolen bases, it appears that bringing Trea Turner onboard has lit a fire under the Dodgers’ heretofore missing running game. As such, this may indeed be the defining moment of the 2021 season for the Dodgers.

Stay tuned…

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