PHOENIX – For a good 24 wild-card hours, starters had climbed pitchers’ mounds as the chosen ones, those tasked with lifting their clubs from the regular season into the division series, and what followed was not tidiness, not gallantry, not brilliance, but chaos .

The Rockies returned with four runs in the fourth against Greinke, and were within 6-5 when Bradley, a career .098 hitter batting with two out in the seventh inning, rifled a triple to left-center field that scored two.

He retook the mound in the eighth inning and allowed consecutive home runs to Nolan Arenado and Trevor Story , bringing the Rockies to within 8-7, because this baseball game would require both teams to travel every inch.

So, it was possible Gray overthrew that curveball, or didn’t entirely believe in it, but it arrived at Goldschmidt about chest-high, and catcher Jonathan Lucroy dropped his mitt to his side, and a few seconds later the Diamondbacks held a 3-0 lead.

Ray, the presumed NLDS Game 1 starter in the event the Diamondbacks advanced, allowed a run in 2 1/3 innings, momentarily settling things at Chase Field.