Dodgers vs. Giants, a battle of home cooking

The Dodgers and Giants meet for a fourth time this season, with a four-game series beginning Monday night at Oracle Park in San Francisco. So far this season, the home team has won all nine matchups between the two longtime rivals.

San Francisco swept the Dodgers in their first trip north this season, holding Los Angeles to four total runs over three games from June 10-12. The Dodgers have won all six games against the Giants at Dodger Stadium, including a four-game sweep coming out of the All-Star break a week and a half ago.

These two teams drifted apart in July, with the Dodgers going 21-5, tied for the fourth-best July winning percentage in over a century. The Giants were just 11-17 for the month, but San Francisco is on a mini hot streak of sorts. They lost seven straight coming out of the break before beating the Cubs in three out of four games over the weekend.

Playoff positioning

The Dodger lead the third-place Giants by 17½ games in the National League West, with a 100-percent chance to reach the playoffs for Los Angeles, per FanGraphs, and a 98.7-percent chance to win the division.

San Francisco’s tailspin has them at 51-51, the eighth-best record in the NL, with six teams advancing to the postseason. The Phillies (55-47) hold the third wild card spot entering Monday, up one game on the Cardinals and four games on the Giants. FanGraphs gives San Francisco a 22.9-percent chance to reach the postseason.

Kershaw fact

Clayton Kershaw is slated to start Thursday afternoon’s series finale, in what will be his 26th career start and 28th game pitched in San Francisco. He is 14-6 with a 1.58 ERA at Oracle Park, with 169 strikeouts in 182 innings.

He allowed two runs in four innings in SF on June 11, his first start back off the injured list after missing a month with right SI joint inflammation.

Recent moves

The Dodgers acquired reliever Chris Martin from the Cubs on Saturday. The right-hander was activated Sunday but did not pitch, so expect him to make his Dodgers debut at some point in San Francisco.

James Outman was called up to take the traded Zach McKinstry’s roster spot, and homered as part of a three-hit major league debut on Sunday.

Giants shortstop Brandon Crawford is on the injured list with left knee inflammation but isn’t back just yet, and Thairo Estrada landed on the concussion IL on Sunday. San Francisco traded for 30-year-old Dixon Machado to fill in at shortstop. Machado was on a minor league deal with the Cubs after playing the last two years for Lotte in the Korean Baseball Organization. Machado played parts of four seasons with the majors (2015-18) with the Tigers, hitting .227/.285/.295 in 505 plate appearances.

Justin Turner, still dealing with abdominal tightness, isn’t expected to play in this series until Thursday at the earliest, as Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register wrote in his Sunday notes column.

Television

Tuesday’s game is on TBS nationally, with Brian Anderson and Jeff Francoeur on the call, joined by reporter Allie LaForce. It’s a full national telecast for TBS, which means no local blackouts. The game will also be televised locally by SportsNet LA.

Wednesday night and Thursday afternoon will be shown on MLB Network, but only for folks outside the local markets.