What will happen to the Dodgers if they lose Hyun-Jin Ryu?

It’s the end of the world as we know it … and you feel something decidedly less than fine?

Is it really Armageddon or just another mountain to tame before the Dodgers finally reach their baseball nirvana for the first time in 26 years? The answer to that won’t be known at least until after Dr. Neal ElAttrache examines the sore shoulder of left-hander Hyun-Jin Ryu on Saturday.

Safe to say for all those who swear they bleed blue, the situation does not bode well. Ryu said the shoulder pain he felt in the first inning -- his only inning -- Friday night at AT&T Park was very similar to the pain he experienced at the end of April, when he was lost for over three weeks with shoulder inflammation.

Now, you never know how teams will respond to these things, but since most excel at expecting the worst, this portends real trouble.

One of the ongoing complaints I keep hearing about the Dodgers is, they lack an identity. They’re a group of talented players who have never meshed into something greater than themselves.

Yet if there was one distinguishable element to these Dodgers, it was their rotation. Or at least their “Big Three” of Clayton Kershaw, Zach Greinke and Ryu. They offered one constant.

Can a “Big Two” get it done?

Not likely. We’re talking about a team that has already lost starters Josh Beckett, Chad Billingsley and Paul Maholm, and would now be down to rookie Carlos Frias as a starter. And as nice as Frias has done in his late-season role, it’s not like he was atop the team’s hot prospect list.

This is the doom-and-gloom outlook, of course, and you know how they say adversity can bring out the best in teams. It would be nice if something did.

The Dodgers still have Greinke and Kershaw scheduled to pitch the next two days, so at least for the moment, they’re in as good a position as they could hope.

But it will be extremely difficult to hold off a hot Giants team over the final 15 games without Ryu, and while on the apocalypse approach, it should be noted that if the Dodgers be forced into a one-game, wild-card playoff, they are 2-5 against the Pirates this year, which beats their 1-5 mark against the Brewers.

It’s not like the Dodgers didn’t need to win these last two games in San Francisco before, but now they really do. Despite their one-game lead, the pressure is now on them and the Giants are the hot team with the momentum.

Across the county line, the Angels lost Garrett Richards, who had been their most effective starter, and responded by suddenly killing the baseball every night. It’s not like it can’t be done without Ryu, but it would not be the world as we know it.