First pitch: Monday, 10:10 p.m. ET
Line: San Francisco +135, Los Angeles -145, Total: 7.5

The Dodgers look to stay hot with a home victory over the struggling Giants on Monday.

The Giants have lost eight of their past 13 games and they are playing lousy at the wrong time. San Francisco lost two straight games after picking up a victory in the first of its three-game set against the Cardinals last series, and this team will need to start playing a lot better if it is going to find its way into the postseason. The Dodgers, meanwhile, were on a five-game winning streak before being unable to get a single hit in a 2-0 loss at the hands of Jake Arrieta and the Cubs. Regardless, Los Angeles is playing well recently and will look to shake off that loss rather quickly heading into this one. The Giants have been dominant in this series this season, going 9-3 against the Dodgers. The teams have, however, split victories when playing in Los Angeles on the year. Pitching for San Francisco in this game is going to be RHP Jake Peavy (4-6, 4.21 ERA, 49 K) and he’ll be going up against LHP Brett Anderson (8-8, 3.42 ERA, 99 K) for Los Angeles. The Giants are 29-20 against the money line with a hot bullpen whose ERA is under 3.00 the past 15 games this season. But playing into the Dodgers’ hands is the fact that Jake Peavy is 3-15 against the money line as a road underdog of +100 to +150 over the past two seasons. SS Brandon Crawford (Back) is questionable for the Giants, who are without OFs Hunter Pence (Oblique) and Angel Pagan (Knee) and 2B Joe Panik (Back) for the next few weeks. The Dodgers are also going to be playing at less than full strength, as they are without OF Yasiel Puig (Hamstring) and 2B Howie Kendrick (Hamstring) indefinitely.

Jake Peavy is starting this game for a desperate Giants team and he looked very good in his most recent start, allowing just two earned runs in 6.1 innings of work against a potent Cubs lineup. San Francisco has earned victories in six of Peavy’s past eight appearances and the team will need him to come away with a quality start on Monday. One guy who has gotten really hot for the Giants has been 1B Brandon Belt (.283, 17 HRs, 60 RBIs). Belt went 4-for-4 in a loss to the Cardinals last game and is 14-for-36 over the past 10 games. He has, however, collected just two RBIs in that time and will need his teammates to start doing better around him in order to make those hits count. C Buster Posey (.317, 16 HRs, 80 RBIs) went 3-for-4 against the Cardinals and has done well against Anderson in his career, going 4-for-13 with two RBIs against him. He’ll need to drive in some runs on Monday if the Giants are going to get hot moving forward. San Francisco will also need 3B Matt Duffy (.302, 10 HRs, 60 RBIs) to start getting some hits, as his batting average has gone from .309 to .302 in the past six games alone.

Brett Anderson pitched very well in Cincinnati in his most recent start, going 6.2 innings and allowing no earned runs despite giving up three runs. Anderson has allowed just six earned runs in his past three starts and will now look to gain momentum back for his team after a deflating loss to the Cubs on Sunday evening. One guy who is going to need to come through for his team after an embarrassing offensive performance is 1B Adrian Gonzalez (.284, 24 HRs, 75 RBIs). Gonzalez has had some success against Peavy in his career, going just 4-for-17 in their past meetings but two of those hits were homers. OF Carl Crawford (.250, 2 HRs, 10 RBIs) has also done very well against Peavy in his career, going 7-for-22 with a homer and two RBIs. Crawford should see more time in the lineup with Puig on the disabled list. 2B Justin Turner (.294, 15 HRs, 51 RBIs) was given the day off on Sunday, but the team used him as a pinch hitter. He’ll be back in the lineup on Monday and desperately needs to break out of the slump he is in. He has seen his average drop from .312 to .294 over the past 10 games, getting just four hits total in that span.