Dodgers-Giants open weekend series with strange feel to rivalry

Renewing the rivalry between the Dodgers and Giants will have a strange feel this weekend. The two franchises couldn’t be headed in more opposite directions at the moment.

San Francisco is on pace to lose 100 games for what would only be the second time (1985) in over 130 years of team history. Los Angeles is on pace for 112 wins which would break the Dodgers record of 105 wins in 1953.

There will be no Clayton Kershaw. There will be no Madison Bumgarner.

Yet even with all that has gone wrong for the Giants, they still hold the season edge with six wins in 10 games against the Dodgers. But this is a different Dodger team than the one San Francisco saw 10 times in the first 41 games.

Alex Wood will get the first shot at the Giants on Friday night when he tries to move on from his first loss of the season. The Braves torched the left-hander for nine runs (seven earned) last Friday, becoming only the second team to hang five runs or more on Wood this season.

The other was the Giants back on May 2 in a 13-5 Dodgers win.

Matt Moore has faced the Dodgers twice this season and was denied a win in both games. Los Angeles jumped all over Moore for nine runs to chase him from the game in the fourth. The lefty has had a rough year, going 3-10 with a 5.82 ERA.

The numbers will take a backseat Friday when the teams take the field and it won’t matter the Dodgers have a 31.5-game lead over their rival.