Hilliard's heroic HR highlights Rockies' recent improvement

DENVER -- The Royals. The Red Sox. The Braves. The Padres.

And now, the Cubs.

When the Rockies stunned Chicago in a dramatic 6-5 walk-off victory in 10 innings on Saturday night, the Cubs became the latest postseason hopeful to come to Coors Field only to lose a series against a club that, as manager Bud Black has put it, is “under construction.”

Lately, Colorado seems to be entering a new phase of the building process. Since July 4, it has won 17 of 28 games at home, and the latest victory came with a flourish.

With the Rockies down to their final out in the ninth, pinch-hitter Sam Hilliard belted a 96.5 mph fastball from Cubs reliever Porter Hodge over the wall in right-center field for a game-tying, two-run homer. In the 10th, Brenton Doyle delivered a single down the left-field line to win it.

It’s as if the young Rockies, with much of the roster composed of players trying to establish themselves at the Major League level and prove that they are part of the club’s future, are beginning to move beyond individual instruction and into a new phase of construction: Learning how to win.

“There are so many guys that are focused a little bit [more] on their individual performance,” Black said. “We’ll get to that point where there’s a team concept around that, too. … As coaches, we’re teaching more of [that collective performance]. It doesn’t happen overnight.”

It’s taken time, but as the 2024 season, which has by many measures been a difficult one for Colorado, nears an end, there are real signs that the Rockies may be closer to dawn.

The bullpen, long the team’s Achilles heel this year, has turned things around over the past few weeks, fueled by youngsters like Luis Peralta, Seth Halvorsen and Jaden Hill. On Aug. 29, the bullpen ERA was 5.38. Since then, it’s 2.83.

Other young players like Hunter Goodman, who had a Rockies rookie-record seven RBIs in Friday’s victory, have stepped up. On Saturday, it was Goodman’s two-out walk in the ninth that proved crucial to the game flipping on a dime.

And the starting rotation is getting healthier and more consistent. Austin Gomber turned in six solid innings in Friday’s win to improve his ERA to 3.00 over his last six starts, and Kyle Freeland was good again Saturday, giving up three runs over seven innings.

Over Freeland’s last 17 starts, he has a 3.61 ERA, the lowest ERA he’s had in a 17-start span in a single season since June 28-Sept. 28, 2021 (3.35). Saturday was the latest solid start in a stretch that has been one of his best since he finished fourth in National League Cy Young Award voting in 2018.

Antonio Senzatela, who hasn’t started a Major League game since May of 2023 (Tommy John surgery), is scheduled to make his season debut on Monday against Arizona.

Construction seems to be making progress.

“These young guys are learning what it’s like to win at the big league level, which is awesome,” Freeland said. “They’re learning to compete in high-level games, high-pressure situations. … Win, lose or draw, they’re learning. That’s what’s going to help propel us forward.”

Saturday’s heroes are also seeing it.

“You can feel the young guys stepping up -- they’re not playing like rookies,” Hilliard said. “They’re playing like they belong here, which is an attitude that you’ve got to have. We feel that from them, especially those young guys at the back of the bullpen, man. It’s exciting stuff.”

Doyle’s offense, which has risen to align closer with his stellar defense in center field, has been the biggest eye-opener for the Rockies this season. He, too, is getting the sense that things feel different as the season winds down.

“A lot of us on this team are guys who were recently called up from Triple-A or are kind of new to the big leagues,” Doyle said. “So, as a group, we’re just trying to see how to best win together. … I think recently, we’ve all been doing a pretty good job.”

Freeland is one of the few veterans on the roster who lived the back-to-back postseason appearances Colorado made in 2017 and ’18. Six years later, he’s seeing something familiar.

“I honestly see in a lot of these young guys the same stuff that we had in ’17 and ’18,” Freeland said. “Myself, [Germán] Márquez, Senzatela, [Ryan] McMahon … we were all really young, first two years in the league. We were trying to learn as we were trying to win, as well.

“I think it’s a great learning curve for them to learn now, moving into next year.”