When all was said and done the Dodgers lost to the Chicago Cubs on Friday night – period. That’s the bottom line and what really matters. It does no good to seek out someone to blame; not Kenley Jansen, who became the new all-time strikeout leader in franchise history for a reliever with his 605th and 606th career strikeouts; not Carlos Ruiz, who was acquired on Thursday afternoon to add offense to the position of back-up catcher and, in fact, who reached base in three of his four plate appearances in his Dodgers debut on Friday night; and most certainly not the trade of the .194-hitting A.J. Ellis that brought Ruiz to the Dodgers.

Sure, A.J.’s trade was an emotional blow to everyone, but from a baseball (and business) perspective, acquiring Ruiz significantly improves the Dodgers chances of winning a World Series title this season.

No, the real culprit for the Dodgers dropping Game-1 of a three-game series to the best team in baseball right now (and thereby having their lead over the San Francisco Giants drop back to only one game) is the same thing that has plagued the Dodgers all season long … all decade long for that matter – their inability to hit with runners in scoring position, at which they were 1 for 15 in Friday night’s painful 6-4 loss to the Cubs while stranding 10 men on base.

“It was a tough loss,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts. “That’s a game that we wanted to win.”

But lost in the disappointment of Friday’s loss was arguably one of the finest defensive plays of the season – Chase Utley‘s unbelievable run-saving play on a hard ground ball off the bat of Cubs second baseman Ben Zobrist. It was not only a near-impossible play for the 37-year-old Utley, who long ago was given the (appropriate) nickname “The Man,” it was a play that was near-impossible for anyone, regardless of age.

But for those wanting to sit around and mope over Friday night’s loss, you better hurry because the next game begins at 1:10 pm PT.

Play Ball!