Slumping Joc Pederson sits, possibly for a few days

LOS ANGELES -- Joc Pederson gets a night off on Friday for the Dodgers in the series opener against the Angels, and the slumping center fielder might sit for a couple days, in an attempt to clear his mind.

"It could be more than one [day]. We talked about this series as a chance for him to get some rest," said manager Don Mattingly. "Give him a chance to just watch the games for a little bit and just give him a little breather."

Pederson has played in 101 of the Dodgers' 102 games this season, starting 95 times, and with 850⅔ innings is second among National League outfielders in defensive innings played.

The Angels are starting left-handed pitchers in each of the first two games of the series, with Hector Santiago pitching Friday night and Andrew Heaney on Saturday afternoon.

Pederson is hitting .233/.317/.397 with three home runs in 82 plate appearances against left-handed pitching in 2015, though he's just 4-for-20 (.200) with two doubles and a walk against southpaws in July.

Kiké Hernandez gets the start in center field on Friday night.

Overall, Pederson is hitless in his last 13 at-bats, and in July is hitting just .169/.229/.258 with one home run in 23 games, with 31 strikeouts and just four walks in 96 plate appearances, and has shown visible frustration with each passing strikeout.

"We talked about him the other day. We like everything about the way he's handling in the dugout and in the locker room," Mattingly said. "But we have seen some frustration up there and we're trying to get that back to where we need to be."

Alex Guerrero starts at third base for the Dodgers, his second straight start at the hot corner after not starting there since May 24. Justin Turner was placed on the 15-day disabled list on Friday with a right thigh skin infection (more on that in a oment), so Guerrero could see even more playing time in the next week or so.

"Alex will probably get the lion's share of those at-bats," Mattingly said. "We'll kind of use Berto the same way we used him in the past, try to match him up."

I buried the lede. Mattingly calls Alberto Callaspo "Berto."