D-backs rally to beat Rockies on emotional night

PHOENIX -- When a pitcher picks up a save, he is given the ball from the final out to do with whatever he wants.

After closing out the D-backs’ 6-5 win over the Rockies on Friday, Ian Kennedy knew what he wanted to do with the baseball. Back in the clubhouse, he walked into manager Torey Lovullo's office and presented him with the baseball to give to general manager Mike Hazen.

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Hazen's wife Nicole passed away Thursday after a courageous two-plus-year battle with glioblastoma, a particularly aggressive form of brain cancer.

The news hit the D-backs’ organization hard, with Lovullo fighting back tears as he spoke to the media pregame Friday.

"Yesterday, it was a brutal day," Lovullo said. "And we'll all rely on one another to get through it."

The D-backs hung a jersey in the dugout with the name "Nicole" on the back, and there was a video tribute to her life played on the scoreboard before the game.

Following the final out, Lovullo stepped out of the dugout, looked up to the sky and pointed.

"It's been a rough couple of days for me personally," Lovullo said. "I think there's a little piece of Nicole Hazen in this win today."

Kennedy felt it, too. Seeing the jersey hanging there when he walked into the dugout to head to the bullpen pregame, he was reminded of the passing of his mother-in-law from the same disease not long ago.

"It just brings back all those memories," Kennedy said. "Seeing her jersey hanging up in our dugout, it just adds a little bit more to it. Just thinking … I'm getting choked up thinking about it. It's just a game, but you want to win it so that hopefully for a brief moment it can help [Mike Hazen] in some small way."

Things didn't look like they were going to end well for the D-backs as the Rockies built a 5-2 lead through six innings.

The D-backs, though, scored a pair of runs in the seventh and then Geraldo Perdomo delivered what proved to be the game-winning hit -- a two-run single in the bottom of the eighth inning.

It's been an up-and-down season at the plate for Perdomo, but the rookie has shown signs recently of starting to put things together.

"He's a very engaged player," Lovullo said. "He's learning offensively. I don't expect young players at 22 years old to have offensive magic, and there's going to be some growing pains. He's had some very productive moments, and I think he's got the type of personality that wants to stand up at the most critical moments. And today was an example of that."

With a lead in hand, Lovullo gave the ball to Kennedy to close it out. The role of closer had belonged to Mark Melancon, but his struggles forced Lovullo to make a change. The manager said before Friday's game that he would go with more of a closer-by-committee situation.

Kennedy retired the Rockies in order in the ninth, thanks in part to an outstanding diving stop by Perdomo at shortstop.

"It didn't look too good there for a while," Kennedy said. "And then we started scoring and you start thinking, 'You know, maybe there's a little magic tonight.'"