Arizona Diamondbacks’ Bronson Arroyo: I’m good, I’m banged up all the time
May 26, 2014, 10:40 PM | Updated: 10:40 pm
PHOENIX — As he walked into the clubhouse and made his way to his locker, Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Bronson Arroyo was soon surrounded by a half-dozen reporters, all wondering the same thing: How was he feeling?
“I’m good. I’m the same as I’ve always been, man,” he said laughing.
That’s good news, because a day earlier his manager explained that part of the reason he was pulled after six innings was due to a tender elbow.
“I don’t know why Gibby (manager Kirk Gibson) said that about my elbow being banged up,” he said. “I’m banged up all the time. It’s not new news. We play this game banged up almost all of the time. That’s just the way it is. You find a good way to stay healthy and it’s going to entail some drugs and some therapy and some rest. It’s just the life of playing 162 games.”
Arroyo was lifted for a pinch-hitter in the seventh inning with the game tied at 1. He had allowed the New York Mets to score the one run on six hits and one walk while striking out one and inducing four double play balls.
Arroyo, 37, takes pride in never having landed on the disabled list over his 15-year career, making at least 32 starts in each of the past nine seasons.
“It’s just stuff you always deal with,” he said of the soreness in his elbow. “There’s times when I just try to be honest with Gibby because at the end of the day when I’ve got 112 pitches and it’s the seventh inning and he asks me how I am and I say, ‘I’m fine’ on some certain day, I want him to trust in me on that. I went to him yesterday and just said, ‘That’s all I’ve got, man. I can’t go another one.’ It’s not in the best interest of the ballclub for me to try to get those three outs in the seventh inning.
“As long as you’re not in an organization where every time you say something is wrong with you or you’re not feeling 100 percent they want to pull you out of the lineup, then that’s a problem for me.”
Arroyo (4-3, 4.15 ERA) is scheduled to make his next start Friday against his former team, the Cincinnati Reds.
