PHOENIX -- When the ball left his bat, Nick Ahmed hoped the game was over.

The D-backs' shortstop hit a hard grounder in the bottom of the ninth that got past a diving Mitch Moreland for a base hit as Eduardo Escobar streaked for home from second base.

Red Sox right fielder Mookie Betts, though, made a perfect throw to nail Escobar for the second out of the inning.

The thing was, Ahmed never stopped running. He hoped he’d hit a game-winner, but he didn’t count on it. Instead, he was running hard out of the box and made it to second base on the throw to the plate.

It was only because of that heads-up play that Carson Kelly was able to follow Ahmed with a walk-off single to left that gave the D-backs a 5-4 win at Chase Field.

“Nick is such a heady player,” D-backs manager Torey Lovullo said. “He’s always in the right place at the right time. It’s all about sacrificing, being prepared, knowing when it’s a good time to take that risk. Nick plays fearless baseball. He does so many little things during the course of a game that not many people see, such as that. But they all add up. All those little things get you those big moments.”

While he will occasionally run into outs on the bases, Ahmed is usually among the best at taking the extra base. And a lot of that comes from the fact that he never coasts.

If there’s an edge to be had, he’s going to try and take advantage of it.

“I try to never assume anything and always play until time is called, essentially, and go all the time,” Ahmed said. “I was hopeful after it got by Moreland that it was going to be a game-winner, but I knew I hit it pretty hard and Mookie was obviously playing fairly shallow in the game situation right there. He came up and made a perfect throw. I just knew as soon as I saw the ball leave his hand, I was trying to get to second. Thankfully, I did, because Carson came up next and got it done.”

It was the first walk-off hit in Kelly’s big league career, and he has fit into the team seamlessly since coming over from the Cardinals in the Paul Goldschmidt trade.

“The biggest thing was just to remain calm,” Kelly said of his mindset heading into the at-bat. "I’ve been in situations like that later in the game, it’s close, and the biggest thing is it can speed up on you. It’s just slowing it down and sticking with the game plan. Control your breath. Go out there and give it your best.”

Having lost Goldschmidt and A.J. Pollock in the offseason, and with Jake Lamb and Steven Souza Jr. on the injured list, the D-backs have preached that doing the little things to win games is even more important.

That can sound like a cliche, but Saturday was an example that it also can also be true.

“It was a great baserunning play there,” Kelly said. “We wouldn’t have scored if he didn’t get to second there. It was very crucial and helped us win a ballgame.”