CINCINNATI -- What manager Torey Lovullo had to say was important, and he needed his ace to look at him.

With one out and a runner on first in the bottom of the fifth inning of what would wind up being a 7-5 D-backs win Friday night, Arizona lefty Robbie Ray threw a pitch and felt the middle finger on his left hand heat up.

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Ray turned to the D-backs’ dugout and motioned for trainer Ryan DiPanfilo to come out. Lovullo joined him and the three stood on the mound as DiPanfilo examined Ray’s finger.

It was a hot spot, but it hadn’t turned into a blister yet. Ray, ever the competitor, wanted to stay in the game. Finally, Lovullo had something to say and he asked Ray to look at him while he said it.

“He put his head down and was trying to avoid me and I said, ‘You need to look at me because we’re talking through this,’” Lovullo said.

“One or two more batters so you can get a win is not the goal here,” Lovullo told him. “Keeping you healthy for the remainder for this baseball season that we’re hoping will last more than this month is my priority.”

That was all Ray needed to hear as he handed Lovullo the ball and walked off the mound, leading 6-2.

“I probably could have finished out the inning,” Ray said. “[It was] frustrating because I felt really good and I’m a competitor, so Torey had to kind of talk me off the ledge. It was the smart thing to do. What we’re trying to do -- what we’re trying to accomplish in this clubhouse -- if I had kept pitching and my finger busted open causing an even bigger issue, it would have caused me to miss more time.”

As it stands now, the D-backs don’t think Ray will have to miss his next start, but he will continue to receive treatment on the finger to make sure that a blister does not end up forming. Ray’s next scheduled turn would be Wednesday against the Mets in New York, another crucial series for the D-backs.

Ray, who recorded his 200th strikeout during the game, felt bad that he left the Arizona ‘pen 4 2/3 innings to pitch, but five relievers combined to finish things out with Kevin Ginkel pitching out of a crucial jam in the seventh and then completing the eighth.

Archie Bradley made things interesting by loading the bases in the ninth, but managed to get out of it with his 13th save.

“They picked up Robbie and we won a baseball game and that’s the bottom line,” Lovullo said.

Winning is the bottom line for the D-backs, and something they’ve done a lot of lately, as they have surged in the Wild Card race.

Friday was the D-backs’ 10th win in their last 11 games as they moved to within 2 1/2 games of the Cubs, who currently hold the second National League Wild Card spot.

The game turned in the fifth when the D-backs, who were trailing 2-1, put together a five-run inning to chase Reds starter Tyler Mahle.

Ketel Marte got the scoring started in the fifth with a three-run homer that stayed just inside the right-field foul pole, before Josh Rojas capped the frame with a two-run single.

Ray helped out the cause in the inning when he reached just ahead of Marte with a sacrifice bunt attempt that popped into the air and landed between the pitcher’s mound and shortstop.

“I saw it was a fastball a little bit elevated … and I wasn’t necessarily trying to pop it up over the pitcher, but I was trying to get it hard in that direction,” Ray said. “It just happened to work out.”

And it also set up what amazingly was a first for Ray.

“Marte is pretty special and he’s having a really special year,” Ray said. “That was pretty cool. It was the first time I had ever been on base for a home run, so it was kind of cool to experience it.”