LOS ANGELES -- Given the injuries to the starting rotation, the Dodgers will spend the next week looking for someone to step up and solidify their pitching plans for the postseason.

Walker Buehler is right at the top of the list and has done enough throughout his career to give the Dodgers optimism that he will bring his best in that setting.

Buehler’s penultimate audition before the postseason had its ups and downs as the right-hander struck out nine, but allowed four runs on five hits over 5 1/3 innings in the Dodgers’ 6-3 loss to the Rockies on Saturday at Dodger Stadium.

The loss was particularly costly for the Dodgers as they failed to take sole possession of the top record in the National League from the Phillies, and their lead atop the NL West is now down to three games over the Padres, who beat the White Sox, 6-2, with seven games remaining in the regular season -- including three head-to-head with San Diego at Dodger Stadium this week.

“I thought Walker really threw the ball well tonight,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts. “I think that there was some soft contact, there was a lot of strikeouts and I thought he really competed well. … Overall, get us into the sixth inning, and I thought he did what we needed tonight.”

One thing that has been a recurring issue for Buehler is trouble early in his starts. On Saturday, the Rockies immediately got second and third with nobody out and scored the first run of the game on a Michael Toglia fielder’s choice.

In the second, Buehler was one pitch away from getting out of another jam, but Ezequiel Tovar pulled a 2-2 breaking ball down the left-field line for a two-run double to put Los Angeles in an early 3-0 hole.

“I feel like I could kind of do something if I could get through the first two clean. Yeah, definitely frustrating,” Buehler said. “Obviously, you come out of the bullpen, you feel good, and warmed up good today, and just didn’t carry it over, obviously. … But I don’t feel like they were hitting six straight balls off the wall. So some encouraging things about it, but obviously not good enough at this point of the year, trying to keep the lead in the division.”

As Buehler said, there were more encouraging things out of this start than in previous ones for the right-hander. Of course, giving up four runs to one of the worst offensive teams is a cause for concern, but Buehler allowed just four hard-hit balls and recorded 14 swings and misses, something that the Dodgers value come the postseason.

“I think that’s always kind of encouraging, but at the end of the day, none of that really matters if they keep putting up numbers. So really kind of deflating,” Buehler said. “I think I’ve had some rough patches and really questioned if I have the stuff to compete, and tonight, I felt like I could compete and just didn’t make the big pitches in the big spots, or kind of made little mistakes and in the big spots, and that’s frustrating.”

With Clayton Kershaw, Gavin Stone and Tyler Glasnow all sidelined with injuries -- Stone and Glasnow until next season -- the Dodgers are going to roll into the playoffs with a depleted rotation. That has opened an opportunity for Buehler to pitch in October, the time of the year when he has thrived in the past.

This version of Buehler, however, is different. He’s coming off a second Tommy John surgery and doesn’t possess the same firepower he did three years ago when he was the staff ace. But still, the Dodgers will rely on Buehler’s postseason experience and his intensity on the mound to fill a hole that desperately needs an answer.

“This is the most confident I’ve been in Walker this year,” Roberts said. “I believe that it was in there, but obviously, he needs to have some success to believe that as well, and I do think that tonight, getting nine strikeouts and commanding the baseball the way that he did, I feel very confident of him starting a playoff game for us.”