Start is special to Rockies pitcher Senzatela

Every now and then, Colorado Rockies pitcher Antonio Senzatela can still hear his mom’s voice when he’s on the field.

The voice he used to hear above all other voices as a kid: “Let’s go, baby!” she’d scream in Spanish.

He misses those comforting words. Nidya Yusbelis Rondon never got the chance to see her son pitch in the majors, passing away last July of breast cancer in Venezuela. But he carries her spirit when he takes the mound, with “Nidya” stitched on his cleats and glove. He also scribbled “I love Nidya” — with a heart — in black marker inside his cap.

Then there’s this: He will get the start today, on Mother’s Day.

“She’s watching me,” the 22-year-old Senzatela said. “I know she is.”

Hardly a given to make the Rockies’ roster out of spring training, Senzatela has become their most dependable arm. He’s 5-1 with 24 strikeouts and a 2.86 ERA. He also was named NL rookie of the month for April.

He’s just one of the burgeoning young arms for the NL West-leading Rockies, along with former Albuquerque Isotopes Kyle Freeland, German Marquez and Jeff Hoffman. They all feed off each other.

“We all played together at Triple-A,” Hoffman said, before stopping himself. “Not Senzatela. He’s a prodigy.”

It helps to have a mid-90s fastball and a slider that falls off the table. There’s also the things that can’t be quantified — pitching in honor of his mom.

“Whether … her memory has helped him, we don’t know,” manager Bud Black said. “I do know that this young man, when he plays and competes, he does so with a great deal of passion”

JONES: With the Negro Leagues museum in Kansas City, Mo., as his backdrop, Baltimore outfielder Adam Jones said the recent racial taunting he endured in Boston shows there needs to be more dialogue about diversity.

Almost two weeks after he said he was called the N-word and had a bag of peanuts thrown in his direction at Fenway Park, the star said Saturday that he still grapples with the reality that “people aren’t afraid to show ugliness and hate right now.”

“I personally don’t understand it,” Jones said at the Museum in announcing his $20,000 donation to the shrine — a gift he said he decided to make months ago, well before the Fenway ugliness he labeled “very unfortunate.”

“With incidents like this, it’s just a great time to talk about it,” the 31-yearold Jones added, midway through his team’s weekend series against the Royals.

Red Sox officials have apologized and said that only one of 34 fans kicked out of the game in question was ejected for using foul language toward a player, and it wasn’t clear whether that was toward Jones. Boston police said the peanuts hit a nearby police officer, and Fenway security ejected the man who threw them out before he could be identified by authorities.

NATIONALS: Bryce Harper and Washington have reached a $21,625,000 deal for 2018, a deal that covers the outfielder through his last year before he can become a free agent.

Harper, 24, would have been eligible for salary arbitration next year. He is making $13.63 million this season.

CUBS: Chicago bought the contract of Ian Happ from Triple-A Iowa and put the outfielder in the starting lineup Saturday against St. Louis for his major league debut.

Happ started in right field. He was hitting .298 with nine homers and 25 RBIs in 26 games with Iowa. He was a first-round draft choice, No. 9 overall.

SQUIRREL DELAY: In Cleveland, Saturday’s game between the Twins and Indians was interrupted for several minutes when a squirrel ran on the field during the sixth inning.

The squirrel raced in from right field and reached the area around the pitcher’s mound, causing the umpires to halt play. The squirrel ran into foul ground and headed behind home plate, but quickly returned to fair territory.

Twins manager Paul Molitor left the dugout to speak with plate umpire C.B. Bucknor and Twins pitcher Jose Berrios threw his arms up in frustration.

Several members of the grounds crew chased the squirrel, which was cheered by the crowd, down the rightfield line before it finally hopped into the stands, allowing play to continue.