Orioles closer Zach Britton is back, but will still have to maintain ankle injury

Still, Britton knows that he's not out of the woods yet. Since the day he was injured, he acknowledged that ankle injuries can be tricky. The good thing is that he didn't roll the ankle, he just jammed it, which is good news for a shorter recovery.

"Everything I've been told is that you just have to stay on top of it with the treatment until it's completely gone," Britton said. "There's no timetable. It's all based on how you feel. The doctors say everyone's different. It could linger for just a few days or it could be a few weeks, so I'll continue to get treatment with Richie and the training staff and hopefully it will get to the point when I don't need that and I can kind of ween myself off the brace to the point where I don't need it at all."

Britton will still wear a bulky ankle brace on his ankle – more so to provided added stability to the joint than for necessity to pitch – for now. The brace is like the ones basketball players wear – Britton joked it's the same model worn by Golden State Warriors star Steph Curry – and had to switch to low-top cleats to fit the brace in.

"It's just an extra piece of protection. I've never pitched with an ankle brace on, so I had to go to some low-top shoes to fit the brace on," Britton said. "It's kind of what I have to do right now, but I feel like it didn't hinder anything I was doing in terms of pitching. I felt pretty good."

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