VENUE: AT&T Park
The Los Angeles Dodgers' woefully unproductive offense has already put them in a precarious position in the NL West, and now they must face the two-time reigning NL Cy Young Award winner.
Then again, the last time they faced Tim Lincecum was also the last time their lineup showed much life.
Los Angeles seeks to break out of its offensive doldrums Friday night against Lincecum and the San Francisco Giants, who host their slumping division rivals for the first of three critical contests.
The Dodgers (54-48), who went into the All-Star break two games out of first place, are 5-9 since despite a 3.38 ERA in that span. As a result, they've fallen seven games behind division-leading San Diego and 3 1/2 back of the second-place Giants (58-45).
Los Angeles has scored 30 runs in the 14 games since the break, and watched its second-half team average dip to .203 after mustering three hits in Thursday's 3-2 loss to the Padres.
Outfielder Scott Podsednik, making his Dodgers debut after they acquired him from Kansas City on Wednesday night, went 0 for 3 with a walk.
"We need to start hitting," manager Joe Torre said. "We're fighting and scratching and playing hard. But we're having too many lousy offensive innings and putting too much pressure on our pitching staff. We need to break out and score some runs."
The Dodgers will get four more chances to face San Diego starting Monday, but they'll first have three opportunities to pull closer to the Giants in the wild-card race.
Los Angeles took five of its first six games with San Francisco this season, but dropped two of three at Chavez Ravine last week - including a bizarre loss July 20.
The Dodgers roughed up Lincecum (10-4, 3.12 ERA) for five runs and seven hits in 4 2-3 innings, but fell 7-5. The Giants trailed 5-4 heading into the ninth, then scored three runs after Los Angeles closer Jonathan Broxton was lifted, the application of a rule invoked when acting manager Don Mattingly - filling in for an ejected Torre - inadvertently made two visits to the mound.
All of the Dodgers' runs came in the first three innings of that game. They've since totaled 14 runs in 79 innings.
Los Angeles probably shouldn't count on similar success against Lincecum this time. He's 4-1 with a 3.54 ERA in nine career games versus the Dodgers, stifling some of their biggest bats. James Loney, Matt Kemp, Rafael Furcal and Russell Martin are hitting a combined .129 (9 for 70) versus Lincecum.
The Giants had averaged 5.6 runs per game while going 18-7 in July prior to Thursday's series finale against Florida, but couldn't muster anything against Anibal Sanchez. The right-hander held the Giants to one hit in a 5-0 defeat, snapping rookie catcher Buster Posey's 21-game hitting streak in the process.
"I had fun with it," Posey, hitting an NL-best .427 in July, told the Giants' official website. "I concentrated on winning ballgames as much as possible, but I guess, in a way, it's kind of nice that the attention will go back to that instead of the streak."
Posey grounded out in his lone career at-bat against the Dodgers' Carlos Monasterios (3-2, 3.30), who will get the ball in search of his second consecutive strong start. The right-hander, who has shuffled between the bullpen and rotation, held the New York Mets to six hits over five shutout innings in Saturday's 3-2, 13-inning victory.
Monasterios has held the Giants scoreless in two relief appearances spanning four innings.
