DENVER -- C.J. Cron’s bat was the Rockies’ instrument of hope during the first half of the season. It brought him an All-Star Game invite and was one of the reasons to dream of a late-season rally.

That bat, however, had so deserted Cron since the All-Star break that manager Bud Black and fatigue- and pain-concerned head athletic trainer Keith Dugger suggested he desert the fickle piece of wood.

“I didn’t touch a bat for three days,” said Cron, who not only touched one Tuesday night, but used it for a single and a game-defining three-run homer in the 7-6 victory over the Rangers at Coors Field. “Sometimes you need to reset, mentally and physically.”

The opposite-way shot in the seventh was Cron’s 24th homer of the season, but just his third since the season recess, which he spent in Los Angeles at his first Midsummer Classic.

Cron, 32, was hit on the left wrist by a pitch in July. At that point, he had played in every game. He has played in all but seven of the team’s 124 this year. That meant he was on the field, feeling most of the team’s 11-20 second-half record, and trying to lift a club with a marquee star -- Kris Bryant -- who has missed all but 42 games with back and foot injuries. All that baseball with all that responsibility can create fatigue.

Black has lightened Cron’s load by using rookie Elehuris Montero regularly in a two-fold move of letting Montero become comfortable and resting Cron.

“I just felt that a couple of days off might help him, so we’ll see,” Black said. “He has a great perspective on this. And he knows he can turn this around quickly and get back to being a consistent performer.”

Tuesday called for a cool-headed, veteran swing, which Cron provided against Rangers lefty Brock Burke. It was the Rockies’ second three-run homer of the game. Elias Díaz launched one in the second inning for his seventh homer of the season.

Cron’s homer bailed out a weird start from righty Germán Márquez, who fell behind, 3-0, on homers by Marcus Semien and Nathaniel Lowe in the first, pitched smoothly for three innings, gave up three runs on three hits and a walk in the fifth, then finished with a clean sixth.

Cron’s defining swing was out of his 2022 character. Most of his homers have been to the pull side.

“When a guy struggles, especially one with power, you have a tendency to want to pull the ball, be aggressive and get the bat head out front,” Black said. “C.J. has got all-field power, so it’s a good sign.”

Boasting a .270 batting average with an .823 OPS, Cron is a strong finish away from approaching last year’s career-high numbers for average (.281) and OPS (.905).

“It’s not my first time in a slump,” Cron said. “I’m pretty confident in myself. I know eventually it’s going to come around. As a hitter, you never want it to take this long. But at the same time, that’s baseball and you’ve just go to keep working.”

Unless, that is, they tell you not to work.

“Just watch the game and try to clear your mind as much as possible,” Cron said. “You’re still at the field, but to know I’m not going to play for three days it really helped me.”