(Photo credit: Ed Szczepanski-Imagn Images)

The Los Angeles Dodgers will attempt to stabilize their dwindling National League West lead when they visit their hottest pursuer, the San Francisco Giants, for a three-game series that starts Friday night.

The series features scheduled pitching starts by the Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani on Saturday, which would be his first ever in San Francisco, and by the Giants' Robbie Ray on Sunday, which would put his All-Star Game availability in jeopardy.

The Dodgers will begin the series five games ahead of the Giants but mired in a six-game losing streak, their longest since April 2019. The defending champions have been swept in three-game sets both by the Houston Astros at home and Milwaukee Brewers on the road.

The Giants have finally gained some steam that was expected when they acquired slugger Rafael Devers from the Boston Red Sox on June 15. They have won four of their last five as Devers works on his comfort level with his new team.

Devers is hitting .267 with no RBIs in the past five games and just .225 with two home runs and nine RBIs in his first 22 games with the Giants.

Devers has never faced Dodgers right-hander Dustin May (5-5, 4.52), who will start Friday after he pitched in LA's most recent win last Thursday at home against the Chicago White Sox. May went seven-plus innings, allowing two runs with nine strikeouts to tie a season high.

May pitched against the Giants on the day they acquired Devers last month, throwing the first six innings of a 5-4 Los Angeles home win that improved his career mark against San Francisco to 3-1 with a 2.38 ERA in six games (four starts). Devers made his Giants debut the next day.

The Dodgers' recent issues range from poor pitching in the Houston series (29 runs allowed in three games) to a lack of clutch hitting against Milwaukee. They did not score in the eighth, ninth or 10th innings of close losses in their past two games.

'We can't really feel sorry about ourselves, because there's a lot of season left, and we know what we're looking for,' the Dodgers' Miguel Rojas told reporters. 'We're looking to win another championship, and playing this kind of baseball is not gonna get us there.'

Ending the streak on Friday won't be easy as the Giants will have ace Logan Webb (8-6, 2.62) rested and ready to go as San Francisco attempts to bounce back from a 13-0 loss at home by the Philadelphia Phillies on Wednesday.

The Giants saw a four-game winning streak come to an end.

Justin Verlander, who started Wednesday's loss, will be nothing more than a spectator in the Dodgers series. Nonetheless, he's looking forward to it.

'I'm excited. I'm sure it's going to be pretty rowdy,' Verlander said after his 15th consecutive Giants start without a win. 'I hope we can move on from (Wednesday's drubbing) and give the Dodgers a good run.'

Webb also pitched the opener in San Francisco's series in LA last month, allowing two runs and two hits in seven innings in a 6-2 Giants victory. The Dodgers rebounded to take the three-game set with 11-5 and 5-4 triumphs.

Webb is 5-6 lifetime against the Dodgers with a 4.00 ERA in 17 starts.

--Field Level Media