Health updates on Matusz and Janish

SARASOTA, Fla. - Orioles reliever Brian Matusz had a cortisone injection in his right shoulder on Monday to alleviate the discomfort caused by a strained AC joint.

The concern is minimal because it's Matusz's non-throwing arm. However, the pain was affecting his ability to work out.

Matusz said the strain occurred about six weeks ago while he was bench pressing as part of his offseason conditioning program.

"It's something that hasn't affected anything on the baseball field, but in the weight room it's definitely limited things, so we decided to just go in there since it was the right shoulder and put a cortisone (injection) in there," Matusz said.

"It's starting to feel better, almost 100 percent."

Matusz threw a bullpen session yesterday and played nine holes of golf. He's slated to pitch Thursday night in the intrasquad game against the Blue Jays in Sarasota.

"It was only done for the purposes of being able to get back in the weight room to continue my normal workout routines," he said.

Infielder Paul Janish said he took ground balls for 20-25 minutes yesterday morning and will continue to do so on a daily basis. He still intends to throw for the first time this weekend since having bone chips removed from his right elbow almost three weeks ago.

"It went really well," Janish said. "I was moving around and relubricating everything, so to speak. It's not just the ground balls, it's the legs and getting everything going, getting the body moving in those ways again. It went as well as it could, to be honest.

"Now it's getting on a consistent schedule of doing that stuff so I can get back into baseball shape and hopefully this weekend I'll have the opportunity to start throwing.

"As far as hitting, that's not as big of a deal. I can actually swing right now, hit off a tee and stuff. But in terms of getting in BP groups and start hitting live, that's probably going to be in accordance with throwing, so I'd imagine this weekend."

Janish wants to play in his first game March 20 or 21.