masn-baseballs-orioles.jpgReliever Josh Lucas sat at his locker this morning with an ice pack wrapped on his right shoulder. He’s on the 10-day injured list, but optimistic about his ability to return as soon as he’s eligible.
An MRI confirmed a strain in the shoulder, but no structural damage.
Lucas said he felt some tightness while warming up prior to the ninth inning of Thursday night’s outing against the Blue Jays. The bullpen was taxed and Lucas pushed through his third inning of work, totaling a career-high 63…

Reliever Josh Lucas sat at his locker this morning with an ice pack wrapped on his right shoulder. He’s on the 10-day injured list, but optimistic about his ability to return as soon as he’s eligible.

An MRI confirmed a strain in the shoulder, but no structural damage.

Lucas said he felt some tightness while warming up prior to the ninth inning of Thursday night’s outing against the Blue Jays. The bullpen was taxed and Lucas pushed through his third inning of work, totaling a career-high 63 pitches in a 12-3 loss at Camden Yards.

Lucas-Delivers-Orange-sidebar.jpg“Felt a little bit of discomfort going into the first hitter and then through the inning, but just got to grind through it,” he said. “The bullpen needed a rest and I had plenty of rest, so may as well just grind through it.”

The club didn’t waste any time setting up the MRI.

“Everything looked good on that,” he said.

“It was pretty sore after the game, so we went ahead and got it looked at then. We started doing treatment then, and when I came in it was still pretty sore. We needed an arms, so just went ahead and DLed me, or IL, whatever it’s called now. Get some arms up here.

“I understand. I’m not happy about going on the IL. No one is. But I understand.”

Lucas said he’s always sore, but perhaps not to this extreme.

“It was just a little more discomfort than normal, so we just wanted to get ahead of it before it got worse,” he said.

“In 10 days, I should be good to go. Just follow the treatment plan and see how it goes. Can’t really predict anything with an injury or anything like that, but we’ll see how it goes with treatments.

“It’s responding well so far, so we’ll just keep going in that direction.”

Lucas, who has a 5.74 ERA in nine appearances, will stay back in Baltimore for physical therapy while the Orioles head out to the West Coast.

The Red Sox scratched outfielder Andrew Benintendi from today’s lineup. Here’s the latest version:

Mookie Betts RF
Christian Vázquez C
J.D. Martinez LF
Rafael Devers 3B
Xander Bogaerts SS
Michael Chavis 1B
Jackie Bradley Jr. CF
Eduardo Núñez DH
Marco Hernández 2B

Brian Johnson LHP