Britton on soreness: "I don't think it's anything serious"

SARASOTA, Fla. - The rain arrived early this morning in Sarasota and caused the Orioles to postpone their intrasquad game until Thursday at 11:30 a.m. Work must be done indoors today unless it involves the backstroke.

Closer Zach Britton isn't scheduled to throw after informing the club yesterday that he's feeling some soreness on his left side. Britton didn't sound worried this morning while providing an update at his locker.

Britton threw on one of the side mounds Monday before heading into the covered cage for his bullpen session. The discomfort didn't surface until yesterday and Britton informed head athletic trainer Richie Bancells and assistant Brian Ebel.

Manager Buck Showalter made the decision to scratch Britton from the intrasquad game, passing along his decision to the media inside the clubhouse yesterday afternoon following his usual interview session in the prep room. Showalter said Britton had the symptoms of a possible oblique injury.

zach-britton-white-throw.png"It felt a little bit better today," Britton said. "It was a few days ago, just kind of normal soreness from throwing. And then we threw in the cage the other day, and I came in and I just felt a little more sore than I normally would, so I talked to Richie and Ebel and kind of figured out what was going on.

"I don't think it's anything serious. It was more just soreness in an area that I don't normally get soreness. And it's so early in camp I figured maybe take a day or so, treat it and see how I feel."

Anything with the word "oblique" attached to it is going to raise concerns.

Britton tried to defuse the situation today, making jokes and pointing out that his sprained ankle last season, suffered while fielding a bunt on April 30, was much worse. Britton pitched again five days later.

The club just wants to get ahead of this injury, or whatever it's called, rather than risk losing Britton for a significant amount of time.

"Yeah, I think it's important," Britton said. "Kind of knowing where I am now and knowing where the finish line is, I think it's important. I figured we'd nip it in the bud right now.

"It was the next day. I didn't feel it actually doing any throwing which is, I guess, a good sign. There wasn't one specific pitch or one thing I was doing that I can remember that gave me an issue, so it was more the next day coming in a little sore."

Britton has never sustained an injury to his lower back or oblique. He went on the disabled list in 2012 after receiving a platelet-rich plasma injection in his left shoulder, a few years before he emerged as an All-Star closer.

"That's why I brought it up to Richie," he said. "It was just a little sore. You're sore right now anyway, but it was in a spot where I'm normally not, so I figured I'd talk to them about it and then treat it and kind of see how I feel the next few days.

"I would be pitching in the regular season. I think my ankle injury was 100 times worse than this last year and I pitched through that, so it was just something I didn't see any benefit to going out there and throwing all the time on this right now and possibility getting worse. I finally did the smart thing and said something.

"That bullpen I threw the other day was really good. I felt really good, so I was kind of surprised when I came in and I was a little sore. Getting old."

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