St. Louis ? On the brink of tying the major league record for strikeouts in a season, Milwaukee’s Jose Hernandez was held out of the starting lineup Thursday night and he might not play the rest of the year.

Brewers manager Jerry Royster kept Hernandez out of the lineup against the St. Louis Cardinals, saying all the media attention surrounding the dubious record “is kind of making a mockery of it.”

Hernandez has struck out 188 times this season, one shy of the mark set by Bobby Bonds in 1970.

Royster said he had not decided whether Hernandez would bat at all in Milwaukee’s final series of the season, a four-game set in St. Louis. The manager said his shortstop “won’t be laughed at.”

“To be honest with you, I don’t care if he played another game,” Royster said. “I can tell you one thing there’s no need for him to play. I don’t have a plan to sit him the rest of the season, and I don’t have plans to play him. If we need him, he will play.”

Hernandez made the NL All-Star team in July. He said all the talk about the record, while frustrating, means little to him.

“I don’t even think about that stuff,” he said. “I don’t think I’ve got to show anybody anything. I’m having a great season.”

Hernandez leads all NL shortstops with 24 home runs and is batting .288 with 73 RBIs. He is hitting .448 when he makes contact.

“The publicity he’s getting for (the strikeouts) is overshadowing the kind of season he’s having,” Royster said.

Hernandez hasn’t fanned in his last 12 at-bats dating to Sept. 18 against Houston. He got six hits in 11 trips to the plate in a recent series against the Astros.

“I saw one broadcast, and they didn’t even mention he had three hits and drove in a run,” Royster said.

“They just showed him swinging a bat and missing. I wish they’d put his stats up there. His stats speak for themselves. He’s hitting the ball hard, it’s not like he’s tapping the ball around to avoid a strikeout.”

Hernandez struck out 185 times last season as the Brewers became the first big league team with more strikeouts a record 1,399 than hits (1,378).

Still, Royster is pleased with Hernandez’s approach at the plate, even if it results in a few too many whiffs.

“For me, I don’t have a problem with what he does,” the manager said.

“If he can cut down on strikeouts, that’s great. Do I know what that could translate to? I don’t.”

The Brewers, completing their worst season in the 34-year history of the franchise, replaced team president Wendy Selig-Prieb and general manager Dean Taylor on Wednesday.

Ulice Payne, a managing partner at the law firm Foley & Lardner, took over as team president and former Texas general manager Doug Melvin replaced Taylor.

Selig-Prieb is the daughter of MLB commissioner Bud Selig.

Milwaukee entered Thursday night’s game 55-103, by far the worst record in the NL.