PHOENIX -- In college at North Carolina, Zac Gallen was given the nickname "The Milkman" in part because of his last name, but also because he always delivered.

Wednesday night at Chase Field, when the D-backs needed their ace the most, he did indeed deliver as he struck out a season-high 11 in Arizona's 8-2 win over the Giants.

With the win, the D-backs are tied with the Mets for the second NL Wild Card spot, and they have a one-game lead over the Braves.

The D-backs came into the game having lost three straight games and were in desperate need of a win to stop the negative momentum.

"Huge," D-backs first baseman Christian Walker said of the win. "These games matter big time. I think we had to prove to ourselves to get back on track, and we had to find a little confidence, a little swagger and a lot of confidence. I think we checked a lot of boxes as far as taking a little bit of a load off and taking some pressure off and remembering how good this offense can be."

That the D-backs needed some reminding of how good the offense was speaks to how quickly confidence can come and go in baseball. After all, Arizona leads all of baseball in runs scored this year.

This was the final regular-season start for Gallen, and he finished with an outstanding outing, allowing just two hits and one run over six innings of work.

"That's probably the best I've felt in a while for the most part," Gallen said. "Everything was working, was able to execute, had a good plan and was on the same page with [catcher Gabriel Moreno], so yeah, pretty solid."

While Gallen's regular season is over, the D-backs hope he still has some more games left to pitch, starting with Game 1 of an NL Wild Card Series next Tuesday. Who that will be against is yet to be determined, and with the Mets and Braves slated to play a doubleheader on Monday in Atlanta, the D-backs might not know who they will face until then.

"More things for the end of the season," Walker said. "Why not? I think anything to make it more exciting and some more fireworks. It'll be fun to follow and watch, for sure."

The bottom line is if the D-backs win their final three games of the regular season, they are in. If they don't, they can still get in depending on what the Mets and Braves do.

Rather than try and piece together all the different scenarios, the Arizona players are trying to keep it simple.

"We very much feel like we control our own destiny in here," Walker said. "And if we just play our game and win some more games, we'll be in a good spot."

D-backs manager Torey Lovullo held a brief team meeting after Tuesday night's 11-0 loss. It was less of a chewing-out session than it was a "remember how good you are"-type meeting.

How much a meeting like that impacts play on the field is open for debate, but it sure helps to have one on the day before the ace takes the mound.

"Zac rose to the occasion," Lovullo said. "He's just got that gear, he's got that extra ingredient that all good starting pitchers have, and you want him on the mound in a situation like this. From my standpoint, he was the right guy in the right spot."

The D-backs have Thursday off before sending Merrill Kelly to the mound on Friday in the opener of a three-game series with the Padres, who are ahead of the D-backs in the Wild Card race.

"We know what we've been going through, and the slate is clean now," Lovullo said. "We will have a good off-day and flush the good and the bad from the past several days, and just try to do the best we can for the next three games. We know who's coming to town, and we've got to be at our absolute best, and I'm sure we will be ready for that challenge."