First pitch: Monday, 10:10 p.m. ET
Line: Los Angeles -120, San Francisco +110, Total: 7

One of the better rivalries in baseball resumes on Monday night as the Giants head to L.A. to take on the Dodgers.

San Francisco has little chance of winning the NL West division, but is still eyeing the playoffs, as the club is tied with Pittsburgh for one of the two Wild Card spots a healthy 4.5 games ahead of Milwaukee. The Giants have struggled lately though, with losses in six of their past eight contests and were swept over the weekend in San Diego. Their offense was able to muster only four runs in Petco Park and took the biggest loss on Sunday as they absorbed an 8-2 defeat. C Buster Posey (.309 BA) has been playing well and is 13-for-36 (.361) with two doubles, a homer and 5 RBI over his past 10 games. Los Angeles has been playing to its potential in 2014 and has already clinched a playoff spot with a magic number of 3 to win the NL West after coming away victorious in 12-of-19 September games. The Dodgers took 3-of-4 games in Wrigley Field against the Cubs most recently; scoring a total of 37 runs and earning an 8-5 win on Sunday. OF Matt Kemp (.286 BA) had four hits in the victory and is 14-for-42 (.333) with four homers, 15 RBI and 10 runs over his past 10 games played. Two long-time veterans will start against each other in this game, as RHP Jake Peavy (7-13, 3.82 ERA) goes toe-to-toe with RHP Dan Haren (13-11, 4.14 ERA) of the host Dodgers. As the road team, the Giants have gone 42-36 (.538) this year and travel into Dodger Stadium where the home team is 40-35 (.533) in 2014. In this matchup, San Francisco has a slight 29-24 (.547) edge over the past three seasons while the two clubs have split their 16 games (8-8) in 2014. Trends show that the Los Angeles is a meager 18-29 (.383) at home when the total is 7 to 8.5 this season, but the Giants are just 5-16 (.238) in road games when playing with a day off in the past two years. San Francisco has plenty of injuries with OF Michael Morse (oblique), OF Angel Pagan (back), 2B Marco Scutaro (back) and C Hector Sanchez (concussion) all expected to be out for this game. Los Angeles has no one injured on the offensive side of things.

The best scenario that could have happened to Jake Peavy was a trade, and since joining the Giants (10 starts) he is 6-4 with a 2.16 ERA and 1.05 WHIP while allowing just two homers in 66.2 frames (0.27 HR/9). He has been hot of late and has allowed two or fewer earned runs in each of his past seven games with one walk in his past three starts (19.1 IP). Peavy has had plenty of experience against this opponent in his career and has posted an excellent 14-3 record (17-9 team record) with a 2.28 ERA and 0.98 WHIP, but did not do well against them earlier in the year (6 IP, 6 H, 3 ER, 5 K's). OF Carl Crawford (6-for-19, 1 RBI) has been solid against Peavy in his career, while 1B Adrian Gonzalez has two homers and three RBIs in his 14 at-bats in the matchup. On the other hand, OF Andre Ethier (5-for-34, 11 K's) and SS Hanley Ramirez (3-for-20, 5 K's) have had no luck against the veteran. The Giants’ bullpen is a great strength of this team, and has gone 28-14 (.667) with a 3.02 ERA and 1.08 WHIP while saving 43-of-60 (72%) opportunities. Closer Santiago Casilla (1.82 ERA, 17 saves) has blown four saves in 2014 while walking a career-low 2.5 batters per nine innings.

Dan Haren has started at least 30 games for the 10th consecutive season, but has seen his ERA rise above 4.00 in each of the past three years. A major reason for his bloated ERA is the amount of home runs he’s allowed, giving up 26 long balls in 174 frames (1.34 HR/9) which is actually a lower number than each of the past two years. Haren has continued to show great control (1.9 BB/9), but has seen his strikeout rate (6.9 K/9) decline to its lowest number since 2005. Haren has looked better lately, allowing one or fewer earned runs in four of his past five starts, but gave up five runs in a losing effort in his last time out. In his 16 career starts against the Giants, Haren is 6-6 (6-10 team record) with a 3.18 ERA and 1.19 WHIP while his team has lost each of the past four times in the matchup. With five hits in 15 at-bats (.333), 3B Pablo Sandoval has done well in his time against the veteran, while OF Hunter Pence is a woeful 1-for-16 with three strikeouts against the righty. The bullpen for Los Angeles has gone 16-23 (.410) with a subpar 3.77 ERA and 1.30 WHIP, and is 46-for-59 (78%) in save chances. Kenley Jansen (2.89 ERA, 43 saves) has a strikeout rate of 14.0 K/9 and has been unlucky with hitters batting .351 BABIP against him.