Cron stays hot with 6-for-6, 2-HR, 5-RBI night
This browser does not support the video element.
BOSTON -- On his way out of the clubhouse late Saturday night, after the Angels had obliterated the Red Sox with a 21-2 victory, Mike Trout made eye contact with C.J. Cron and said, "You're hitting .287!"
Cron's response: "I am?"
When the game began, Cron's batting average stood at .268. But then he went 6-for-6, with a couple of home runs and five RBIs, and suddenly his batting average increased by 19 points, which is hard to do when you're playing in your 71st game.
Cron became just the fifth player with six hits, five RBIs and five runs in one night, joining Walker Cooper (1949), Cal Ripken ('99), Edgardo Alfonzo ('99) and Shawn Green (2002).
This browser does not support the video element.
He joined Chone Figgins (2007) and Garret Anderson (1996) as the only Angels with six hits in a game. And he joined catcher Carlos Perez as the first pair of teammates with at least five hits and five RBIs in the same game since Gene Moore and Buck Jordan for the Boston Braves on Aug. 25, 1936.
"My swing feels a lot better than it did early on, that's for sure," said Cron, who belted his first career grand slam Friday night. "I don't know what it is. I wish I did. But it feels a lot better now, and hopefully I can continue this a little bit."
Cron singled in the first, homered in the fourth, lined a two-run single in the fifth, cranked out two more hits in an 11-run seventh -- a single to center and a homer to left -- and lofted a ball off the top of the Green Monster in the ninth, while facing outfielder Ryan LaMarre.
This browser does not support the video element.
"I thought it was close [to going out]," Cron said. "I mean, the Green Monster is pretty big out there."
Cron is batting .364 since the start of June, getting hot at right around the same juncture as last season. There was a time, not long ago, when the 26-year-old power hitter was beginning to lose playing time to corner infielder Jefry Marte. But Cron has solidified himself once again.
"You want to play," Cron said. "You don't ever want to have the day off. When we started kind of switching off, I think I put a little too much pressure on myself to try to have too big a game. I just want to get back to the basics, do what I know how to do, and hopefully it'll all work itself out."