O'Day on injury: "It's just a freak accident"

Orioles reliever Darren O'Day is on the disabled list with an injury he sustained in a bizarre mishap before Tuesday night's series opener against the Royals.

O'Day said he was stretching his arm and a teammate accidentally came into contact with him and hyperextend his right elbow.

"My arm felt great," he said. "I was just stretching in the bullpen first game and someone ran into my space. That's what happened. I threw two innings in Oakland. There was nothing related to that. I felt good.

"It's frustrating because to succeed you've got to stay on the field. I felt good, I felt like I was pitching better. It's just a freak accident."

This is the fourth time that O'Day has gone on the disabled list since signing his four-year, $31 million contract in December 2015. He had a strained hamstring and rotator cuff in 2016 and a strained right shoulder last season.

O'Day is eligible to return on May 16.

"I'm hoping as soon as the week's up, the 10 days," O'Day said. "I guess it's a common football injury but it's a different animal because they don't have to pitch, which involves arm extension. It's feeling a lot better today. There was a lot of swelling in there but now it's gone down. I don't know. I haven't picked up a ball, so we'll see. That's come here hopefully soon."

An MRI on O'Day's elbow came back "remarkably clean," said manager Buck Showalter. O'Day feared that he sustained a much more serious injury upon impact with his teammate.

"Structurally fine," he said. "Just a hyperextension injury. There's some pretty grotesque pictures of me pitching where my arm is flexed and at these odd angles, but I think I'll be fine. I think so. At least I'm hoping. It didn't feel good at the time. It really had me pretty worried about it. There's been some pretty gruesome injuries on plays at first base, hypertension sorts of things, so luckily structurally everything held up. Hopefully, it'll just be 10 days.

"I thought it was something that I may be out for a long time because it hurt quite a bit. I've seen guys get hurt in a similar manner, so yeah, I was really worried about it."

Showalter noted how O'Day feels pretty good today and is "sore in the right places now."

"I think getting the MRI behind him ... What's tough is anytime you take a shoulder or elbow X-ray of a pitcher, even at 25 but especially at 30-plus, you're going to find something. But this one was remarkably clean. And that was really good. I think Darren feels real good about that because you always have some baited breath when you're going through that.

"Listening to him describe what he felt at the time it happened ... I don't really have a lot of experience with it, but the 16th, we got the back date. Ask me in a couple days and I think I'll have a better feel for if he continues to make the improvement."

O'Day is 0-1 with a 3.77 ERA and 0.977 WHIP in 13 appearances this season.

"He's pitching pretty well," Showalter said. "Darren's been very solid for us for a long time and will be again."