Orioles Put Lee, Roberts On DL

Both moves were retroactive to May 17. Lee has a left oblique muscle strain and Roberts has been sidelined with a concussion.

The Orioles hoped to avoid placing both players on the disabled list, but neither showed significant improvement.

"Talking to medical people, I don't want to lose Derrek (long term)," manager Buck Showalter said. "He impacts our team in a lot of ways, but taking a chance on this?

"The medical people think we could potentially take care of it during the DL period, but in my mind, that's iffy. My experience with these things over the years, there is usually a lot more going on there than you think. I hope not."

Roberts has had headaches since making a headfirst slide in a game against Boston on Monday.

"He's the same today as he was yesterday," Showalter said.

Roberts missed extensive time last season with a concussion after he hit himself on the batting helmet with a bat after a strikeout, but Showalter said this injury is not related to that one.

"Anytime you're dealing with a concussion and heads and stuff, you're concerned about it. I was talking to Brian. This isn't anything like the symptoms he was feeling last year," the manager said. "That's good, but you still have those symptoms that we're going to make sure that we have our arms around it before we go forward. We're hoping that it clears up and the doctors feel fine about it, and he's (back) on Tuesday."

Lee is hitting .231 with four homers and 14 RBIs. Roberts is hitting .221 with three home runs and 19 RBIs.

After using the entire bullpen in Wednesday night's 15-inning loss to the New York Yankees, the Orioles recalled two relievers from Triple-A Norfolk, right-hander Chris Jakubauskas and lefty Troy Patton.

Jakubauskas pitched in three games with the Orioles in April. Patton was 1-0 with a 2.60 ERA in six games with Norfolk.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)