A’s beat: Pinder hopes to return before playoffs.

A’s utilityman Chad Pinder said he’s making progress in his recovery from a right hamstring strain and is “extremely hopeful” of being able to play in Oakland’s final regularseason series against Seattle.

“I’m starting to feel like I’m turning the corner, starting to feel better,” Pinder said Tuesday before the A’s opened their series against the Dodgers in Los

Angeles. “I’m going to get out there today and run a little bit. … We’re definitely on the right track of feeling good.”

Pinder was placed on the 10day injured list on Sept. 13 after injuring his hamstring in a game at Texas. He said if running went well Tuesday, he’ll begin taking grounders and onfield work in the next couple of days. The A’s hope to have Pinder back for their firstround playoff series, which begins next

Tuesday; Pinder said he’d like to get into games before the postseason starts.

“It’s going to be just how healthy he is,” manager Bob Melvin said of possibly having Pinder for the Seattle series. “I don’t know that we get him to 100% but we’d like to get pretty close.”

Pinder’s injury occurred just as he was likely to receive more playing time at third base against lefthanders following Matt Chapman’s seasonending hip injury. The A’s subsequently signed Jake Lamb, who made a fast impact by going 8for22 with two home runs and seven RBIs in his first six games with Oakland. Pinder is batting .226 this season with two homers and seven RBIs.

On Davis: Melvin said Khris Davis will be in the lineup Wednesday against lefthander Julio Urias and that he’d also like to get Davis atbats against righthanders in the final week. Davis entered Tuesday batting .197 but was 6for18 with three extrabase hits in his past six games.

“His last 15 or so atbats have been really good,” Melvin said. “We have a bunch of lefthanders once we get against Seattle. So he’s going to get quite a few atbats here, which is good because we’d like to play off the fact that he has swung the bat here as well as he has maybe all season. Hopefully, we can get him going a little bit more.”

Briefly: With teams allowed to carry up to 12 players on the taxi squad in MLB’s playoff bubble, the A’s added catcher Carlos Perez, infielder Sheldon Neuse, outfielder Luis Barrera and pitchers Grant Holmes and Lucas Luetge, in addition to players who have been on the taxi squad for prior road trips this season, The Chronicle has learned. … Righthander Daniel Mengden, who was designated for assignment Sunday, cleared waivers and was outrighted to TripleA Las Vegas.

Chronicle staff writer Susan Slusser contributed to this report.