The default vibe from Chad Bettis before he pitches in a baseball game screams “buzz off.” He sits in silence and stares from the shadow of a big, black hoodie.

“There’s a steely-eyed look that these guys have that is awesome,” Rockies manager Bud Black said of his Rockies team on the verge of their first postseason since 2009. “There have been points in this season where they’ve been tested. And they bounced back.”

The steeliest of Rockies eyes belong to Bettis, the 28-year-old right-hander who returned from cancer only in August, flew through his first two late-season starts, scuttled some in September, then pitched a dominating outing Friday in a 9-1 blowout victory over the Dodgers at Coors Field.

Bettis retired the final 14 batters he faced, shutting down a Dodgers team that managed just four hits and one run over seven innings. And the Rockies moved one giant step toward a wild-card postseason berth. They need only one more victory or one Milwaukee Brewers loss to face the Diamondbacks on Wednesday at Arizona in a one-game playoff.

“He’s not going to be scared to pitch against the Dodgers. No offense to the Dodgers, but he beat cancer,” shortstop Trevor Story said. “I wish I could say it surprised me, but it really doesn’t, just because of the type of guy he is and the work he’s put in.”

The plan for Bettis was simple.

“How about old school?” Black said before Friday night’s game, the first of a three-game series to close the regular season. “How about one zero at a time? Then we’ll go from there.”

He put up zeroes on six of his seven innings, allowing only Justin Turner’s run-scoring single to left field in the third that brought home pinch-hitter Trayce Thompson. The Rockies had offered just 2.75 runs per game behind Bettis this season, but on Friday they scored three in the first and two apiece in the second, fourth and fifth innings.

Over nine starts since his return, Bettis has yet to find anything resembling the kind of overpowering fastball used by rotation mates Jon Gray and German Marquez. But he gets by like Black’s old days, with guile to guide a pitch arsenal that never falls into predictability. On Friday, that meant a cutting fastball at 90-91 mph, with an 86-mph changeup and a truly off-speed 72-mph curveball.

“One of the biggest games he’s ever pitched,” Black said.

Bettis, demurring, disagreed: “It felt bigger, but I wouldn’t say ‘big,'” he said. “We’re not necessarily there yet. But we’re close. It was a lot of fun. I tried soaking it all in.”

It was the third outing of such length since Bettis returned after chemotherapy treatments to battle a recurrence of testicular cancer that knocked him out of spring training in February. Through the first four months, the Rockies got by with a rookie-heavy rotation, waiting for the return of Bettis. They never knew for sure when he might pitch again.

“To be back with my teammates, and be part of this push (toward the playoffs), it’s what I’ve strived for,” Bettis said. “I didn’t want to make the game into something it wasn’t. I wanted to approach it like a regular game and however it unfolded was how it unfolded.”

But his season debut worked like an in-house trade deadline acquisition. And it paid off Friday. Bettis helped guarantee the Rockies a winning record this season against the NL West champion Dodgers. They are now 10-7 against them — and two of those victories came behind Bettis.

Rockies all-star third baseman Nolan Arenado said Bettis’ return Aug. 14 was “a big deal.” He meant it personally and professionally. In his past 27 starts dating to last season, the Rockies are 18-9 behind Bettis.