Howie Kendrick sits in Dodgers opener with Mets

The Dodgers open up a four-game series against the Mets at Citi Field, and will do so without Howie Kendrick at second base, getting a breather on Thursday night in New York.

Kendrick had started the last 23 games.

On Thursday, Kiké Hernandez gets the call at second base, his seventh start at the position this season.

The timing might have worked out for Kendrick to sit against Bartolo Colon, against whom he is 2-for-22 (.091) though with only four strikeouts. Hernandez is 1-for-1 against Colon

Kendrick out of the lineup means Justin Turner moves up, batting second, with Adrian Gonzalez hitting third. It also means Andre Ethier is batting cleanup for a second straight game and third time in the last five games, after not batting there since Aug. 28, 2013.

Gonzalez is 9-for-21 (.429) against Colon, with two home runs and two doubles.

The Mets are batting Wilmer Flores third, John Mayberry Jr. cleanup and Eric Campbell fifth on Thursday night. Their season performances to date:

• Flores: .248/.282/.382 in 350 plate appearances (though 9-for-13 in the three-game series at Dodger Stadium earlier this month
• Mayberry: .170/.235/.330 in 115 plate appearances
• Campbell: .179/.305/.283 in 175 plate appearances

Mayberry is 3-for-12 with two doubles and two walks against Kershaw, while Flores is 2-for-3.

That trio, and the rest of the Mets, get to face Clayton Kershaw, working on a streak of 20 straight scoreless innings of his own. The lineup doesn't seem to be popular in New York:

@truebluela I bet you the top 3 hitters in the dodgers lineup amass more hits than the whole mets lineup this series.

— Joshua Mogilner (@J_Mogilner) July 23, 2015

@djshort @truebluela I think I need a drink pic.twitter.com/mFE6QqCh8s

— ed marcus (@lagranderusty) July 23, 2015

Jeopardy Answer: "John Mayberry is hitting clean-up." Jeopardy Question: "What's a perfectly acceptable sentence from 1975?" #Mets

— Mike Vaccaro (@MikeVacc) July 23, 2015