Robbie Ray kept throwing fastballs in the third inning on Friday night and his pitches kept sailing wide or high or low of the strike zone. Time and again, the Chicago Cubs hitters watched them zip past, then jogged leisurely to first base.
At the end of what has been a dismal first turn through their starting rotation, the Diamondbacks were hoping Ray, their promising young left-hander, might be the one to snap the pitching staff into order.
It wasn’t the sort of outing anyone would submit as an example of baseball’s sublime splendor – it was, for stretches, just plain brutal -- but Ray managed to navigate his way past enough potential pitfalls to give the Diamondbacks their first quality start of the year.