Lowrie’s two-run double in seventh lifts A’s past Rangers

The Oakland Athletics got more than they expected in Andrew Triggs’ first start since suffering a season-ending hip injury last June. The bullpen was pretty good, too.

Triggs pitched five effective innings, Jed Lowrie hit a tiebreaking two-run double in the seventh, and the A’s beat Texas 3-1 on Monday night, spoiling the Rangers debut of Bartolo Colon.

“At some point in time it’s going to be tough to keep covering four innings of a game,” Oakland manager Bob Melvin said. “I’m glad we have an eight-man bullpen because there are a couple guys not available every day, as there will be tomorrow.”

Triggs allowed four hits — including Joey Gallo’s RBI single in the fifth — struck out seven and walked two.

Ryan Buchter followed Triggs with 1 ⅔ innings, and Chris Hatcher (2-0) retired two batters for the win. Blake Treinen got five outs for his first save despite allowing the first two batters to reach in the ninth.

“Our team is built to finish games and we’ve got a lot of good arms in the bullpen that can go multiple innings,” Treinen said. “It’s a nice luxury to have.

“You win a game 3-1 against an offense that you see all the time; you tip your cap to Triggs, the bullpen doing the work and the offense coming in with some big hits in the seventh.”

Matt Chapman homered for the second time in two days, and Matt Olson and Jonathan Lucroy had two hits apiece for Oakland. The A’s had lost three straight since beating the Angels on opening day.

The Rangers have dropped six consecutive road openers and nine consecutive games at the Coliseum.

“If our guys continue to take the approaches that they’re taking, get on base, continue to swing the bat and find the barrel, some of those hard-hit balls are going to find the grass and we’ll get rolling,” Texas manager Jeff Banister said.

Called up from the minors before the game, Colon allowed seven hits in six innings. The A’s only run off the portly right-hander came on Chapman’s homer leading off the third.

At 44 years, 313 days old, Colon became the oldest player in the majors this season, slipping past Seattle’s Ichiro Suzuki, who is four months younger. Last season Suzuki said he wanted to play until he’s 50.

Colon might not stick around that long, but he pitched well enough in his first start of the season.

“Mentally and physically I think have a lot to give,” Colon said. “I felt great throwing strikes. That’s what I do.”