Arroyo good to go, shrugs off elbow comment

PHOENIX -- D-backs right-hander Bronson Arroyo said his elbow would not prevent him from making his next scheduled start and he was surprised at the attention it received from the media.

Arroyo told manager Kirk Gibson he was spent after six innings in Sunday's first game of a doubleheader and Gibson told the media following the game that Arroyo had a "tender" elbow.

"I don't why Gibby said that about my elbow being banged up," Arroyo said. "I'm banged up all the time. It's not new news. We play this game banged up almost all the time, it'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, man."

Arroyo, 37, has never missed a regular-season start in his 15-year career spanning 365 starts, and he has no plans to miss his turn Friday against the Reds.

If he makes 33 starts a year, Arroyo estimated that he feels like he did Sunday around eight times and another eight times he feels great. The rest of the time he feels so-so.

"This is the big leagues, so we're going to go out there sometimes not with our best stuff, not feeling 100 percent, and sometimes you've got to mask that over with treatments and drugs and all kinds of different things," Arroyo said. "And that's just the way I think this game should be played. That's what we get paid for is to go out there and grind it out at any cost."