Darren O'Day provides an update on his hamstring injury

Orioles reliever Darren O'Day said this afternoon he first had an issue with his strained right hamstring during the first game of the series in Houston on May 24. It improved and he continued to pitch until it got worse when he was covering first base in the eighth inning on Wednesday night.

The Orioles put O'Day on the 15-day disabled list yesterday but he is not certain he will be back when those 15 days are up.

"In 15 days? No, I don't know," O'Day said. "There is nobody that is going to say 'bet my life it will be 15 days.' I'm going to do whatever I can to get back as fast as I can. I did something similar to my left hamstring when I was in A ball and I came back relatively quick. So, we'll see. Nobody will put a timeline on it. But, I don't have to get surgery or anything, so that's nice.

"It's a high hamstring strain. I think that is a little more work to get better than a normal hamstring strain. We'll see. Doctors wouldn't put a timeline on it so we'll take it one day at a time. Get back as soon as I can."

O'Day is 2-1 with a 3.15 ERA in 22 appearances out of the bullpen, but the five home runs he has allowed match his total in 68 games last season.

"I hurt it in Houston warming up (on May 24)," O'Day said. "Pitched that night and pitched a couple of days later. Was treating it and it was getting better and feeling good. Moving around pretty good. And then it was (Wednesday) against the Red Sox, had to cover first base. And it popped again. Went to bed that night, woke up the next day and it was pretty sore. That was when we did all the MRI and stuff. Had to a see doctor yesterday to get an MRI and find out what was going on."

Two of the five homers O'Day has allowed have come since that first game in Houston and O'Day indicated it has impacted his pitching.

"It's tough. The way I pitch, you know your hamstring, it's tough to bend over. So in my pitching delivery I bend over to start the delivery. So yeah, it wasn't very good after I hurt it," he said.

O'Day was asked if he thought it would be a problem pitching after he originally hurt the hamstring or if he needed to get into games to know for sure.

"It wasn't too bad," he said. "That was the first game in Houston and I warmed up three times that night. It's a sore hamstring. You play 162 games you are going to have sore stuff. It wasn't too bad. Every day after that we treated it. It got better, it got better. To the point where three nights ago when I was running in from the bullpen to the mound I ran normal speed and felt good. Just, when I had to be in a hurry to get to first base I hurt it."

O'Day now will be lost for a time to an Orioles bullpen that has the second-best bullpen ERA in the American League. In fact, right now the Orioles have gotten more wins from their bullpen than their starting pitchers.

The O's rotation is 15-18 with a 4.91 ERA. Their bullpen has a mark of 16-4 with a 2.74 ERA. The Orioles 'pen leads MLB in wins with Kansas City next closest with 12.