THE WORLD SERIES : OAKLAND ATHLETICS vs. LOS ANGELES DODGERS : Oakland Fans Seem Undaunted, Say A’s Will Come Back Strong

It was a tough night for Oakland Athletics fans, but the fifth-game loss of the World Series to the Dodgers didn’t seem to shake anyone’s loyalty.

“They’ll be back,” said Stuart Huizinga, 26, of San Jose. “The Dodgers will not be back. It was a fluke.”

It was a sentiment shared by most A’s fans after Thursday night’s game, which the Dodgers won, 5-2, to take the Series, 4-1.

“I was hoping it would go five games, but I was hoping it would be the other way around,” said Jeff Cole of Waterford, Calif., a self-described Dodger-hater who confessed that he would like to have second baseman Steve Sax and pitcher Orel Hershiser play for the A’s.

Although many Oakland fans grudgingly credited great Dodger pitching with shutting down the Bash Bunch, Margo Robison of Berkeley, an A’s fan for 20 years, viewed the loss a little differently.

“It wasn’t our team playing in this Series,” she said. “It was other people in A’s uniforms.”

Russ Goddard, 45, of San Jose, said the A’s are “still a good, exciting young team and will play good exciting baseball. It’s not a question of whether they will repeat.

“We were going to bask in the glory, but now we’ll be crying in our beer and counting the days till opening day of 1989,” he added.