Angels’ Jered Weaver drops suspension appeal

On Friday night, Jered Weaver was adamant about appealing his six-game suspension, saying he wanted his voice heard.

But after sleeping on it, the Angels’ ace apparently decided it wasn’t worth it.

Weaver, 14-5 with a major league-leading 1.78 earned-run average, dropped his appeal Saturday and began serving the suspension issued by Major League Baseball for throwing at Detroit Tigers catcher Alex Avila on July 31.

“It just helps the team out a lot more … just gets the process under way and puts it behind me,” said Weaver, whose next start will be Aug. 13 at Toronto.

If Weaver had appealed, he likely would’ve met MLB officials Tuesday and potentially missed two starts — Wednesday at New York and Friday at Toronto — leaving the team scrambling to find replacements.

It’s still unclear who will start Wednesday after Joel Pineiro’s recent demotion to the bullpen.

“We’ll have a starter,” Manager Mike Scioscia said. “We just don’t have a name yet.”

The leading candidate to make that start is reliever Hisanori Takahashi, who was 3-2 with a 3.55 ERA in 43 games through Friday.

That he dropped his appeal doesn’t mean Weaver, a candidate for the American League Cy Young Award, agrees with the suspension, which Scioscia said probably wouldn’t have been reduced.

In fact, Weaver said he “wouldn’t have changed anything” about how he reacted to Detroit’s Magglio Ordonez and Carlos Guillen lingering a too long at the plate after hitting home runs.

His reaction? Throwing his next pitch, a 92-mph fastball, over Avila’s head, which earned Weaver and Scioscia each an ejection.

“If Guillen didn’t do what he did,” Weaver said, “we wouldn’t even be having this conversation right now.”

Guillen in particular drew Weaver’s ire after flipping his bat, posing, then skipping a bit before beginning his home run trot around the bases.

But although the Angels don’t face the Tigers again until next season, why didn’t Weaver just wait until then for a rematch against Guillen?

“Is he going to have a job next year?” Weaver said. “We’ll see. I hope so.”

Torii Hunter tastes his own medicine

Seattle rookie outfielder Trayvon Robinson’s leaping catch that robbed Torii Hunter of a home run Friday was ironic since it’s Hunter who usually robs home runs.

“It felt bad to be on the other end of it,” said Hunter, who admitted that he kind of liked it, too.

On his way to the dugout after the catch, Robinson, who was making his major league debut, put his glove up over his face, not wanting to make eye contact with Hunter, a nine-time Gold Glove recipient.

“I thought he was going to beat me up or something,” the Crenshaw High product and former Dodgers prospect said.

Hunter laughed at that notion: “I said, ‘Don’t be ashamed. Make sure you do that to everybody.’ ”

baxter.holmes@latimes.com twitter.com/baxterholmes