Orioles’ Eflin confident he can return when IL stint ends

BALTIMORE—Zach Eflin thinks his stint on the 15-day injured list shouldn’t last longer than those 15 days. Eflin, who had won his first four starts with the Orioles, was scheduled to start on Wednesday, but on Tuesday, he was placed on the injured list, retroactive to Saturday, because of right shoulder inflammation.

That means Eflin could be ready to pitch as early as September 1st.

“Absolutely, as I stand today, for sure,” he said.

Eflin, who was acquired by the Orioles from Tampa Bay on July 26th, is 4-0 with a 2.13 ERA in those four starts.

“It’s something I’ve dealt with before, but at the end of the day, I’m not really concerned about it, either,” Eflin said.

“It’s more so that it didn’t get to a point where I felt comfortable enough going without it affecting the next month, month-and-a half, two months. As much as it sucks, get it out of the way, and standing here, it already feels 10 times better than it did the other day. I’m feeling really good about it.”

Eflin said there was some tightness and inflammation, and the inflammation “really didn’t go down as much as I hoped it would in between starts, so it doesn’t feel like a red flag to me or anything more, so I didn’t have enough time to heal before going back out there.”