A’s place Jesús Luzardo and J.B. Wendelken on injured list

The Oakland A’s pitching staff got knocked around last night, and the hits kept coming today in the trainer’s room.

The A’s placed Jesús Luzardo and J.B. Wendelken on the 10-day injured list Sunday morning, the team announced. The diagnoses are a fractured left hand for Luzardo, and a strained left oblique for Wendelken. The pair combined to allow all eight runs the Baltimore Orioles scored in an 8-4 loss the previous day.

Luzardo’s injury occurred before the game, in which he was tagged for six runs (three earned) in three innings. He was playing a video game and bumped his hand but was cleared to proceed and make his start, and after the outing an X-ray showed a hairline fracture of his pinky, reports Matt Kawahara of the S.F. Chronicle.

Full quote from manager Bob Melvin, via NBC Sports:

“Before the game [Saturday], he was playing a video game, and accidentally bumped his hand on the desk as he was playing the game. He came in, was a little bit sore, the training staff checked him out, we threw him in the cage before he went out there, watched him warm up, he was comfortable pitching, the training staff was comfortable with him pitching. After the game, we got an X-ray and there was a hairline in the [left] pinky finger.”

While the extent of the Orioles’ scoring was exacerbated by defensive errors, it was still curious to see the lefty struggle with his command all day, finishing with as many wild pitches as swinging strikes (two apiece). A fractured finger goes a long way toward explaining that mystery.

There is not yet a timetable for Luzardo’s recovery or return.

Wendelken’s injury occurred at the end of his appearance Saturday night. The right-hander “felt the injury on the last pitch he threw yesterday,” reports Kawahara.

More details from Kawahara:

Wendelken pitched in 15 of the first 28 games. Melvin asked if possible correlation with workload: “I think that was just more of a freak thing. It would be more of a shoulder or an elbow thing if we were pitching him too much.”

In corresponding moves, two relievers were called up from the alternate site, righty Jordan Weems (for Wendelken) and lefty Adam Kolarek (for Luzardo). Both have already pitched for Oakland this season and now returning for their next stints. Click here for more info on Weems, and here for more on Kolarek.

The A’s were temporarily working with a six-man starting rotation after the activation of Mike Fiers from the IL, but today’s moves return the staff to its normal arrangement of five starters and eight relievers.

Olson returns to lineup

The A’s lost two players to the IL on Sunday, but they also got one back from an injury, with the sight of Matt Olson in the lineup. The first baseman missed three games after a bizarre batting cage accident that left his eye swollen shut.

Olson already homered, in his second plate appearance of the day.

As for a couple other pitchers who were already on the injured list, Kawahara has updates:

A.J. Puk threw a bullpen session [Saturday]. “We’ll see how he responds to that tomorrow,” Bob Melvin said. Burch Smith is scheduled to throw two simulated innings at Stockton [Sunday].

Here’s the updated injury report entering Friday.

• RHP Trevor Rosenthal, 60-day IL, thoracic outlet surgery (July at least)
• UT Chad Pinder, 10-day IL, knee (start rehab 5/10?)
• LHP A.J. Puk, 10-day IL, biceps (threw a bullpen 5/1)
• LHP Jesús Luzardo, 10-day IL, finger (no timetable yet)
• RHP J.B. Wendelken, 10-day IL, oblique (no timetable yet)
• RHP Burch Smith, 10-day IL, groin (will throw sim game 5/2)
• 1B Matt Olson, BACK IN ACTION, eye (in lineup 5/1, homered)