For Robbie Ray, a left-hander for the Arizona Diamondbacks, it was not the start, but the finish.
Laboring through a difficult first inning, Ray withstood a 32-pitch inning and three runs by the Colorado Rockies. Quickly, he turned fortunes around. In turn, his Diamondbacks’ teammates picked up the hard-throwing lefty, and countered with four in the bottom of the frame. From that challenging opening inning, Ray settled down, and allowed only three base runners during his final four innings.
If lack of support haunted Ray in earlier starts, the Diamondbacks unloaded a group of lethal bats in this one, and proceeded to hammer the Colorado Rockies, 11-4 before 20,897 in Chase Field.