Familiar foes vie for NL wild card

PHOENIX — The Diamondbacks and Rockies share a spring training facility and played each other 19 times this season.

They know each other very well.

Now comes game No. 20 on Wednesday night, the biggest one of them all, an NL wild-card matchup with Arizona’s Zack Greinke facing Colorado’s young Jon Gray.

“There’s no secrets here,” Rockies manager Bud Black said. “We know what they like to do. They know our players. … They know our tendencies, they know our hitters’ tendencies, they know our pitchers’ tendencies. And we know theirs.”

It’s a matchup of underthe-radar franchises in the NL West that had turnaround seasons under firstyear managers. The Rockies are in the playoffs for the first time since 2009. The Diamondbacks haven’t been here since 2011. The game is sold out at 48,686-seat Chase Field.

“A couple of guys were wondering why the fans weren’t here early in the season and when were they going to start showing up,” Arizona manager Torey Lovullo said Tuesday. “And I told them you keep playing the same type of baseball, they’re going to come out and support us.

“So we want to earn that. We know that they’re out there, and I can’t wait to what tomorrow brings as far as the crowd, the noise and the energy.”

Here are some things to consider when the Rockies meet the Diamondbacks:

WILD ATMOSPHERE: Diamondbacks slugger J.D. Martinez relishes the idea of playing in the energized atmosphere of the winner-take-all contest, but said the players can’t get too caught up in the scene.

“It’s going to be awesome, it’s going to be fun,” he said. “But at the same time you have to control it. I think that’s going to be the hardest thing for everyone, both sides. It’s just being able to control that environment and being able to control your adrenaline, your emotions and your feelings, because all that stuff’s going to be on a high.”

GREINKE’S ARM: Greinke (17-7, 3.20 ERA) will be making his 10th career playoff start. His postseason record is 3-3 with a 3.55 ERA. He is 2-1 in five starts against Colorado with a 3.41 ERA in 34 1-3 innings.