Notes: Cron's struggles; injury updates

First baseman C.J. Cron was one of the Rockies’ hottest hitters in Spring Training, but when the regular-season lights came on, the struggles began.

Maybe there is something to that.

Cron, who hit .354 with five home runs in Cactus League play, entered Thursday's matchup with the Dodgers at Dodger Stadium batting .182 (6-for-33) in the regular season.

With an 0-5 start to their first road trip, with Thursday mercifully being the finale, the Rockies would have preferred a better start from Cron, and others. But in Cron’s case, some of the struggles are predictable.

In 158 career Spring Training games, Cron has batted .331 and compiled a .977 OPS. But in March/April regular-season games, Cron has hit .234 (his second-lowest monthly average to his .232 in June) with a .674 OPS (his lowest).

Playing under the lights could be a factor. Well, maybe.

"I didn't play one night game [this spring], and you play obviously a ton of night games during the season, so you're going to need time to kind of have your eyes adjust to that,” Cron said. “I don’t know.

“It’s just different, Spring Training and the season. It’s really hard to compare the two. I really don’t have an answer, unfortunately.”

Cron, however, had two hits in Wednesday night’s 4-2 loss to the Dodgers and began to feel his timing return.

“I hit a couple fly balls yesterday for my two outs. ... That means I'm in a good spot,” Cron said. “I saw a couple a couple of oppo knocks yesterday, so hopefully it's slowly coming back. But hitting is so tough, man. There are such minimal mistakes that you can make when you're in the box, and sometimes those things kind of snowball. That's where a lot of guys are at right now.”

Injury updates
Infielder Brendan Rodgers (right hamstring strain) and left-handed pitcher Kyle Freeland (left shoulder strain) are completing the road trip with the club. Because they aren’t close to returning to game action, they will stay with the club as it returns to snowy Denver on Friday.

Right-handed starter Peter Lambert, recovering from Tommy John surgery and further away from returning than Rodgers or Freeland, also is with the big club rather than the alternate training site in Scottsdale, Ariz., with the Minor League players.

That was not a pep talk
Rockies manager Bud Black was ejected in the third inning on Wednesday after arguing a called strike against his leadoff hitter, Garrett Hampson. Black said Thursday his invective toward home-plate umpire Phil Cuzzi was not some kind of backchannel way of lighting a spark under a struggling team.

“That was just about last night’s game at that moment, where I thought some pitches were missed, and I voiced my displeasure,” Black said.