ST. PETERSBURG -- A day after he was roughed up for eight runs in a 13-4 drubbing by the Rays, the Athletics placed starter Andrew Triggs on the 10-day disabled list on Saturday because of a left hip strain.
In a pair of corresponding moves, the A's called up outfielder Matt Olson from Triple-A Nashville and reinstated former All-Star reliever Sean Doolittle from the 10-day DL as the A's 26th man for Saturday's single-admission doubleheader at Tropicana Field.
Triggs labored through the defeat, becoming the first Oakland pitcher to yield eight runs and three homers in 3 2/3 innings or fewer since Player Page for Vin Mazzaro did it against the Yankees in 2010.
Mired in a four-game losing skid that has seen his ERA balloon from 2.12 to 4.27, Triggs said he began to feel something in his hip during a side session and it carried over to the game. He is scheduled to undergo an MRI for further testing, but does not anticipate the issue evolving into something serious.
"We're always pitching through little aches and pains and things here and there, so I didn't really think much of it," the right-hander said. "It started to really bug me quite a bit [on Friday] during the game. It was one of those things that I realized we have a doubleheader today, and I wanted to go out there and see how many outs I could get with what I had.
"It wasn't getting worse, but it wasn't getting better out there. So I felt pretty confident I wasn't going to injure anything beyond what might have been in there."
A's manager Bob Melvin said he has not determined how the rotation will shape up beyond the current series. But if the issue is minor, as hoped, Triggs might not miss more than one or two starts. With the 28-year-old now shelved, the only member of Oakland's rotation who has not spent time on the DL this season is Jharel Cotton.
"If you look at his body of work, it's fallen off a little bit lately. But it was really good at the start," Melvin said. "You never want to lose a starting pitcher unless you have to -- and in this case, we had to."
Though disappointed to lose Triggs, Melvin was happy to get Olson back after he was sent down on Wednesday. After homering for Nashville on Friday night, Olson caught a 6:30 a.m. flight from Memphis and connected through Atlanta to arrive at the clubhouse with plenty of time to spare.
"[Olson is] swinging the bat well," Melvin said. "You like to get guys here when they're playing well."