Full Preview of Huge Giants-Dodgers Weekend Rivalry Series

The upcoming clash between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Francisco Giants is a tale of two division rivals headed in opposite directions.

The Dodgers, a team considered to be favorites in the NL West at the start of the season, have been playing like it the past two weeks. The Giants, on the other hand, look nothing like the team that has won two World Series titles in the past three years.

As it stands Thursday, the Giants are currently in last place in the division while the Dodgers are tied for third, but all teams in the NL West are separated by only four games. It's a wide-open race in the West, and both teams have a legitimate shot at reaching the postseason.

Here's a full preview of the critical series coming up this holiday weekend.

Pitching

San Francisco Giants

What was once a staple of the Giants' success the past three years has now turned into a detriment to their success.

The Giants' pitching staff, which was considered to be one of the premier units in baseball, is now—quite literally—average. The team ERA of 3.90 over the past two weeks ranks it 15th in the league. There have been some improvements, however, since the staff's ERA on the entire season is 20th in the league.

Tim Lincecum has put together back-to-back promising starts, and Matt Cain has been his dominant self for five starts in a row dating back to June 7.

The Giants will have Madison Bumgarner and Chad Gaudin—who will be fresh off the disabled list—starting the first two games of the series, and both have been dependable starters for manager Bruce Bochy thus far. They'll be followed by Lincecum, who needs to find a way to restrain from imploding in the sixth inning.

Los Angeles Dodgers

While the Dodgers could use another starter, their staff as a whole has been nothing short of dominant during the past two weeks. A team ERA of 3.37 ranks them eighth in the league.

Just like the most recent series where the Dodgers swept the Giants in Los Angeles, Hyun-Jin Ryu, Stephen Fife and Clayton Kershaw will be making the three starts again in this upcoming series. The trio happens to be the three hottest pitchers on the staff, as they've accumulated ERAs of 2.75, 1.83 and 2.54 respectively over their last three starts.

Hitting

San Francisco Giants

Outside of Buster Posey, there is literally no one in the Giants lineup who has been hot as of late.

Over the past two weeks, Pablo Sandoval is batting .107, Marco Scutaro has an average of .196, Brandon Crawford has only three hits in his last 34 at-bats and Hunter Pence is only batting .234.

Gregor Blanco, who came up with quite a few clutch hits after the Giants found out Angel Pagan would be out for an extended period of time, has also struggled.

Sandoval is a Giant that has been noticeably struggling at the plate. Teams have taken notice that he's unable to catch up to the fastball, so pitchers have been pumping them by him lately. It's not fair to speculate that this inability to hit them is related to his weight, but it's certainly not that outlandish of an assumption.

Los Angeles Dodgers

It's no surprise who the hottest hitters on the Dodgers are. Yasiel Puig has been the talk of the baseball world after being the first player in MLB history to win Player of the Month during his first month in the majors.

Even though Puig has batted .414 with four home runs during the past two weeks, he hasn't even been the hottest hitter on the team during that stretch.

Hanley Ramirez has been tearing the cover off the ball, and his .469 batting average and five home runs during the last two weeks certainly backs that up.

Injuries

San Francisco Giants

The injury bug has run rampant throughout the Giants locker room this season. Angel Pagan and Ryan Vogelsong are both currently on the DL and won't return for an extended period of time, but Santiago Casilla may be close to returning. He is scheduled to make one more appearance in the minor leagues Thursday and could then return shortly thereafter.

Los Angeles Dodgers

After sending Carl Crawford on a rehab assignment June 30, Josh Beckett and Chad Billingsley are the main players that remain on the DL.

It's also no coincidence that the Dodgers are starting to hit their stride now that Hanley Ramirez and Matt Kemp have recently come off the DL themselves.