Dodgers’ Matt Kemp doesn’t start against Giants, but not because he’s serving a suspension

Matt Kemp was not in the Dodgers starting lineup Sunday, but it wasn’t because the hot-hitting left fielder dropped his appeal of a one-game suspension for a shoving match with Texas catcher Robinson Chirinos on Wednesday night.

“It’s just a day off,” manager Dave Roberts said before the game. “He’s played six in a row. With a day game after a night game, the way [Enrique Hernandez] is playing, and we wanted to get Joc [Pederson] in there. … I want to have him fresh so he can play all three games in Chicago.”

Kemp, who hit his 12th homer in the second inning of Saturday night’s 3-1 win, pinch-hit in the eighth inning Sunday and grounded out. He ranks second in the National League in average (.338), slugging percentage (.579) and on-base-plus-slugging percentage (.953), and he leads the team with 43 runs batted in.

Roberts said the Dodgers are still awaiting a response from Major League Baseball to the appeal of a suspension Kemp called “shocking.” Kemp said his altercation with Chirinos was “just a little pushing. I’ve seen way worse.”

Chirinos also received a one-game suspension and served it Friday. If Kemp was going to take Sunday off, wouldn’t it have made sense for him to just drop the appeal, serve the suspension and get it out of the way?

“We considered that,” Roberts said. “I don’t know if it’s philosophically or fundamentally, but we just feel that even one game, playing short-handed, isn’t warranted. That’s our opinion, so to take that stand, we feel good about that.”

Second fiddle

The Dodgers were unable to extend a peculiar major league record that they set Saturday when Max Muncy, the second batter in their lineup, failed to homer Sunday.

When Hernandez hit a two-run homer in the fifth inning Saturday, it marked the seventh straight game in which the Dodgers got a homer from their No. 2 batter, the longest such streak in major league history. Muncy provided four of those shots, Hernandez hit two, and Justin Turner hit one.

Good hustle

Caleb Ferguson is still looking for his first major league win after pitching five innings in Sunday’s loss, but the 21-year-old left-hander did collect his first big league hit in the third inning. Barely.

Ferguson grounded a single through the second base hole against San Francisco starter Chris Stratton but had to hurry to the bag to beat right fielder Andrew McCutchen’s throw to first.

“I almost got thrown out at first base,” Ferguson said. “But I got the first one out of the way. I have a hit now.”

mike.digiovanna@latimes.com

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