Hilliard heats up with 2 HRs off Syndergaard

DENVER -- September callup Sam Hilliard has interrupted his period of hard lessons with some hard swings of his own.

Hilliard homered twice off his fellow Mansfield, Texas, native and sometime workout and yoga partner, Mets righty Noah Syndergaard, on Wednesday at Coors Field. But the Rockies lost, 7-4, after closer Jairo Díaz -- trying to go 1 2/3 innings for a save -- gave up four runs in the ninth inning.

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In his first five Major games, Hilliard contributed two home runs and a triple. Then he plunged into a 1-for-23 slump, with 12 strikeouts. While manager Bud Black had praised the competitiveness of Hilliard’s at-bats, strikeouts had been an issue in the Minors, and some of that at the highest level was expected.

But Hilliard began to strike back in a 6-1 loss to the Mets on Tuesday, when his singles accounted for half of the four hits the Rockies managed off Marcus Stroman, who pitched seven scoreless frames. Thursday’s power show served as a reminder that he intends to compete for a Major League job when the Rockies gather in Scottsdale, Ariz., for Spring Training 2020.

“It’s coming with repetition and me starting to become more comfortable,” Hilliard said. “But it’s a funny game. You’re always searching for that feeling when you get hot.”

Black noted that even when the hits weren’t coming, Hilliard was competitive, and he has been doing fundamental work with hitting coach Dave Magadan and assistant hitting coach Jeff Salazar.

“His overall at-bats are pretty good,” Black said. “He’s not chasing a lot out of the zone. He’s seeing the ball. He’s not swinging wildly. He’s got power, and it showed up again today.

“Moving forward, when he faces big league pitching and he gets more comfortable, there are things he’s working on that will help him.”

Hilliard, 25, called up after recording 35 home runs and 101 RBIs at Triple-A Albuquerque, became the first player with two homers in the same game off Syndergaard. He pulled a 1-2, 97.8-mph sinker into the second deck above the Rockies’ bullpen in right to tie the score at 1 in the second inning, and he lashed a full-count, 97.5-mph fastball to the left-field bleachers for a 2-1 lead in the fourth.

“I was trying to be as relaxed as I could today, and I think the game is finally starting to slow down a little bit,” said Hilliard, who went to a different high school than Syndergaard and never played against him as a teenager. “I was lucky enough to get a few pitches I could handle, and they ended up carrying out.”

Hilliard’s swings were a boon to righty Jeff Hoffman, who gave up solo shots to Jeff McNeil in the first and Pete Alonso (the 49th of his rookie year) in the sixth, but held the Mets to no other runs and five total hits in 5 1/3 innings. Hoffman, who struggled mightily much of this year, has pitched well in September and will compete for a spot in the rotation next spring.

An easy criticism of Hilliard is his propensity for striking out -- 151 K's in 121 games last year at Double-A Hartford, 164 in 126 games this year in his first Triple-A experience. But he had respectable on-base percentages of .327 (2018) and .335 ('19), not bad for someone who struck out so frequently.

An adjustment he made late last season could lead to fewer empty swings and keep him in position to crush balls left over the plate the way he did against Syndergaard.

Toward the end of last season, Hilliard returned to a leg kick that he'd abandoned when he struggled at the lower levels. A byproduct of that is the tremendous torque he can build with his 6-foot-5, 238-pound frame, and he’s not afraid to swing hard. He’s not merely trying to get his bat to the ball. He wants to do damage.

“It feels like I can unlock my hips and be an athlete, as opposed to just putting my foot down -- I feel a little bit restricted doing that,” he said. “You want to work on your weaknesses, for sure, but you never want to take away from what you’re good at. That’s using my power and hitting mistakes.”

Turns out Brad Hawpe, a one-time Rockies Draft pick who forged a successful career with the club, played a hand in the adjustment. Hawpe helps spearhead Cooperstown Cages in Fort Worth, Texas, where Hilliard does his offseason hitting. One of the founders, Shawn Morgan, does the hands-on work with Hilliard. Hawpe, who had a modest leg kick, offers his experience.

“One of the things [Hawpe] emphasized in the offseason is staying on my back leg,” Hilliard said. “In turn, that’s going to keep my body still and my head still, because you can’t hit a 96-mph fastball if your head is moving around. That clicked with me, and I hit the ground running. It felt natural.”

If the power holds and the strikeouts lessen, Hilliard will spice up the roster competition next season.

All-Stars Charlie Blackmon and David Dahl (out for the season with a right ankle sprain) are secure in right and center field, respectively. The left-handed-hitting Raimel Tapia and right-handed-hitting Ian Desmond -- who made a diving catch and doubled Brandon Nimmo off first on Thursday -- figure to share duties in left. Utility man Garrett Hampson, who started at second on Thursday and stole two bases to become the sixth rookie in club history to reach double figures in that category, plays center at a beginning level.

And although the right-handed-hitting Yonathan Daza has not yet translated his bat-to-ball skills from Triple-A to the Majors, he is as solid as any of them defensively.

But Hilliard’s power and speedy versatility (he played both center and left on Wednesday) are tools that could shake up the outfield mix.