Blue Jays: Tanner Roark pulls no punches on being yanked early

Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Tanner Roark didn’t mince words when he voiced his displeasure on being pulled early from last night’s contest.

I will set the stage for you in the event you were not aware of the events leading up to Tanner Roark‘s postgame zoom comments. Blue Jays skipper Charlie Montoyo opted not to have the veteran hurler face the New York Yankees lineup a third time through the order.

Montoyo yanked Roark after the fourth inning in a 2-2 game after tossing just 68 pitches. Ross Stripling would be his replacement on the bump and promptly surrender three runs in the fifth inning as the Blue Jays eventually lost the contest 7-2.

The eight-year veteran pulled no punches voicing his displeasure calling it “horse crap”. He also compared himself to a diesel engine that starts off slow and gets better as you go throughout the game.

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Roark would continue voicing his displeasure on the quick hook from his manager, however, it is apparent Montoyo does not share the same faith in his starter as he does in himself. The right-hander currently sports a 5.60 earned run average while surrendering 22 runs in 35.1 innings this season.

The 33-year old hurler inked a 2-year, $24 million dollar deal this offseason with Toronto. Last season, Roark tossed 165.1 combined innings with the Athletics and the Reds but the previous three seasons, he never threw any less than 180 innings in a season and including a career-high 210 innings in 2016.

“Just because the computers are saying something different, I hate it. I am old school, they signed me here for a reason not to go 3, or 4 innings and throw a certain amount of pitches. I throw a lot of pitches, I try to go as deep as I can. I don’t know, it’s baseball, it started last year, and now it’s starting again this year keeping that trend going. I disagree with it.”

I actually like the comments, shows that Roark is a competitor and still has the fire burning inside his belly. This zoom call was much better than the typical cookie-cutter answers we have become accustomed to from athletes.

In saying that, I am sure Roark and management will be having a closed-door meeting to address the comments sooner than later. It may be interesting to see how this one plays out especially with postseason rosters looming in the coming weeks.