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Geraldo Perdomo, Ian Kennedy save best for last in D-backs’ clutch win

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PHOENIX — The Arizona Diamondbacks (47-58) saved their best for last in a 6-5 win over the Colorado Rockies (47-62) in front of a crowd of 17,720 at Chase Field on Friday night.

With two outs in the bottom of the eighth and the D-backs down 5-4, rookie shortstop Geraldo Perdomo came through with a clutch two-RBI single to right field to bring in the game-tying and winning runs.

“Found a way to rally when we had to and we had the big hit by Perdomo in the eighth inning,” Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said postgame. “Everything timed up perfectly for him and he had a great at-bat in the most important moment of the game and those are the little things we try to define ourselves by. We built an inning, we kept pressing on.”

Perdomo followed the hit up with a stolen base and a phenomenal defensive play in the ninth inning to go along with a walk and run scored in the ballgame.

Ian Kennedy also had an impressive eight-pitch (five strikes) ninth inning to pick up his sixth save of the season after Lovullo announced a “closer by committee” prior to first pitch.

“That’s what you’re looking for out of your closer and the person who’s going to be locking up your ninth inning,” Lovullo said. “It was free and easy and he was just in command of his pitches. I haven’t seen the data yet, but it looked like he had good carry on his fastball and he was just pressing it in there.

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“There was a presence on the mound that was coming after the hitter and that’s what I felt in the dugout.”

D-backs left-handed starter Madison Bumgarner wasn’t his best, allowing five runs (four earned) on 10 hits (one home run) and one walk while striking out two in 5.2 innings pitched over 90 pitches tossed (63 strikes). Bumgarner also refused to have third base umpire and crew chief Dan Bellino check his hand for substances after he ejected the lefty in Miami back in May.

“No way, I’m not putting myself in that position again. No way, I won’t do it,” Bumgarner said.

“(The home plate umpire) might be a little bit uncomfortable, but I wasn’t being aggressive. I just told them, ‘If you want to check my hand, you can do it. But I’m not letting him do it, I won’t do it.’”

Compare that to Rockies right-hander Germán Márquez, who allowed only two runs on four hits (one homer) and three walks while striking out three over six innings on 103 pitches (70 strikes) en route to a quality start.

Arizona couldn’t muster much off the Colorado starter, but was able to manufacture runs once the Rockies bullpen came in for relief of Márquez. As a team, the D-backs garnered a total of eight hits and six walks while leaving seven runners on base and going 3-for-9 (.333) with runners in scoring position.

“We had some fighting opportunities that didn’t work out early in the game,” Lovullo said. “I think our team was overall frustrated, that was the sense I was getting inside the dugout — I could be wrong — but finally broke through.

“You look up and they got 10-12 hits and we’ve got four or five and things are just not going our way. What I enjoyed seeing was we didn’t shut down. We closed up that gap rather quickly.”

And despite the Rockies racking up a total of 12 hits, Colorado left a whopping eight runners on while hitting 4-for-17 (.236) with RISP.

That’s largely due to the D-backs bullpen, which combined for 3.1 innings of two-hit shutout baseball, including a three-strikeout inning from winning pitcher Chris Devenski (1-0) and a scoreless 1.1 innings from Kevin Ginkel as the first arm out of the bullpen in relief of Bumgarner.

The Diamondbacks opened the scoring in the bottom of the first inning after Josh Rojas reached on a leadoff walk, Márquez balked him to second base and Ketel Marte brought him in with a bloop RBI double to left field to make it 1-0 D-backs.

After Randal Grichuk tied the game in the second with a solo home run to left field off Bumgarner, the Rockies took a 2-1 lead on a Jose Iglesias RBI double in the top of the third frame.

But Daulton Varsho quickly tied things up for Arizona with a solo blast of his own into the pool to make it 2-2 after four innings of play.

The Rockies scored three runs in the top of the sixth — only two of which were earned due to a Rojas throwing error. The D-backs third baseman has now committed seven errors since July 10.

But Rojas would make up for his blunder in the bottom of the seventh with a two-RBI double to right center field to cut the deficit to 5-4. He also stole a base in the frame, his 13th of the season.

EXTRA BASES

– Lovullo said pregame that RHP Humberto Castellanos would be having Tommy John surgery, which will sideline the right-hander for the rest of the 2022 season.

– The skipper added that LHP Caleb Smith had successful surgery on his non-throwing right hand. However, there is no current timetable for the lefty but Lovullo said Smith could be back before the end of the season.

UP NEXT

The D-backs go for the three-game series win on Saturday at 5:10 p.m. on 98.7 FM Arizona’s Sports Station.

Arizona RHP and National League July Player of the Month Merrill Kelly (10-5, 2.87 ERA) is scheduled to start against Colorado RHP Antonio Senzatela (3-6, 4.87 ERA).