A’s lose series to Dodgers, but an unexpected move tells more about the postseason

The Oakland A’s got a good taste of some of baseball’s best arms this week.

The Los Angeles Dodgers have plenty of elite starters, but the A’s had the privilege of facing young, electric Dustin May Tuesday. Thursday they got Walker Buehler, an engine of 98 mph fastballs and dizzying curveballs.

Buehler, fresh off a blister that sidelined him, came in a threw four shutout innings with one hit allowed. The A’s struck out six times against the right-hander in the A’s eventual 5-1 loss Thursday night.

If you want to know truly how elusive Buehler’s stuff is, digest this: Tommy La Stella — who has the lowest strikeout rate in the major leagues — struck out in his first two at bats. His first multi-strikeout game of the year. It wasn’t just Buehler. The A’s couldn’t get much going against the Dodgers bullpen, either. The A’s struck out 16 times Thursday to round out a 36 strikeout series in Los Angeles. Sean Murphy’s home run in the eighth saved them from shutout misery.

“Got some pretty good pitchers that struck us out quite a bit, so consistency is something we’re looking for,” manager Bob Melvin said. “You hope to come in today playing off yesterday, but it just didn’t happen.”

The A’s went through a similar offensive slump in the few series prior to last year’s wild card game. It’s not where you want to be with the most important games of the year coming up.

“Teams go through this. Hitting is contagious. We’ll start to grind out some at bats,” La Stella said.

Jesús Luzardo relief appearance and what it means

We’re starting to collect key puzzle pieces to inform who will start in the upcoming wild card series at the Coliseum.

Who would pitch in this weekend’s series against the Seattle Mariners could help us piece the puzzle. Chris Bassitt will start Friday. That much we do know. That puts him in line to start Game 2, most likely.

Jesús Luzardo would be on turn to start one of Saturday’s doubleheader games. Instead, he came in relief of Mike Fiers in a clean sixth inning.

“We just wanted to keep him on regular turn like this would be and keep our options open in the end,” manager Bob Melvin said. “We’re trying to keep as many options open to see what we want to do in the postseason.

“If he pitches a little later (in the week), he doesn’t factor in.”

Luzardo looked ill prepared for the sudden call to action. He has a bad habit of falling behind in counts early, and he swam in that habit out of the gate. Luzardo gave up two straight doubles, a walk to kick off the inning. The Dodgers tacked three runs on him.

He recovered in the seventh, allowing a walk but getting a couple quick outs to temper things. And he followed that up with a quick 1-2-3 eighth. He threw 54 pitches with no strikeouts and three walks. A generally uncharacteristic outing for the 22-year-old left-handed rookie. Then again, Luzardo hadn’t pitched out of the bullpen since the second week of the season.

It doesn’t really matter how Luzardo fared. That he pitched provides us another puzzle piece for the postseason series. He’s now lined up to pitch in Game 1 Tuesday, Sept. 29. Though, that isn’t a guarantee.

We know Luzardo will probably pitch at some point in the series. Though, Melvin articulating that the outing today keeps all options open tells us that, perhaps, they haven’t sorted in what role he’ll land.

The nature of a three-game series makes this a tougher call. Do the A’s see value in having their electric rookie arm kick off the series? Or is he the go-to guy for a must-win Game 3 that isn’t guaranteed?

Of course, keeping options open will have most to do with the opponent. The A’s seeding is unclear — except that they will be in one of the top three seeds — as is their opponent. Though, that’s starting to narrow down to a handful that includes Cleveland, Toronto and possibly Houston or even the Angels.

“I guess they want to see who we face first. A lot of things can change in the next couple days,” Fiers said. “It’s all about matchups and putting the best lineup and best starter out there.”

On regular turn, Fiers remains an option to pitch in the series, too. He looked good against the Dodgers, allowing just a home run to Corey Seager and an RBI single to Will Smith.

“I’m way better than early on,” Fiers said. “The first month of this season was rough for me. I think we’ve worked out some kinks and got some innings under our belts. I think I’m ready for a big game.”

The A’s could replicate something they did Thursday — with Fiers starting and Luzardo piggybacking. But the A’s seem intent on maximizing Luzardo’s talents as a starter, so it wouldn’t be surprising to see him get a start, at least.

The puzzle is coming together, but the picture is still unclear.