Major League Baseball

Orioles 2B Roberts, RHP Duchscherer progressing

Published Mar. 15, 2011 7:44 p.m. ET

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Baltimore Orioles second baseman Brian Roberts received encouraging news Tuesday from a medical test on his ailing back, and pitcher Justin Duchscherer has learned there's no structural damage to his bothersome left hip.

Roberts, who has been sidelined with back spasms, said Tuesday that an MRI showed no damage. He will begin a progression that he hopes will allow him to start the April 1 opener against the Tampa Bay Rays.

''Much better, definitely. Quite a bit better,'' Roberts said. ''Hopefully, I've gotten the inflammation that was causing the discomfort calmed down and I now move on.

''I started having some neck discomfort in January and it just never really went away. And then I had some spasms in my back last Sunday, Monday, Tuesday. And those two things combined, we decided to just see what was going on.''

Roberts missed time earlier in camp with neck stiffness and was limited to 59 games last season because of a herniated disk in his back.

''Last year was 100 times worse. This is nothing like last year,'' he said.

Duchscherer has appeared in only one game, going two innings against the Philadelphia Phillies last Tuesday, because of stiffness in his surgically repaired left hip. He threw off flat ground on Sunday, but discomfort caused him to skip a simulated game.

Duchscherer had an arthrogram on Monday, with dye being injected in his hip, but no structural damage was found. He will be shut down two or three more days and re-evaluated.

''Nothing new there from what we knew about coming in, so hopefully he can progress back to the mound,'' manager Buck Showalter said. ''The bottom line is, he understands his hip better than anybody, what he may be able to pitch with and what he may not be able to pitch with, and we're kind of in between that.

''It isn't an exact thing, but if he can get to a point where he's comfortable with it ... if not, we'll have to decide what we're going to do then.''

Duchscherer struck an ominous tone Tuesday by comparing the stiffness to what he felt before undergoing a surgical procedure on his hip last summer.

''The best I can describe it is it felt like it did last year before I had to have it operated on, so I thought the smart thing to do was not go out there and try to throw three innings when it was already hurting in warmup,'' he said.

In other news, first baseman Derrek Lee still hasn't played because of soreness in his right wrist, but he intends to take live batting practice Wednesday.

X-rays and an MRI taken earlier this spring didn't reveal any damage. The wrist atrophied while Lee wore a cast over the winter on his surgically repaired thumb.

''It won't be much longer before I'm in a game,'' he said.

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