SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — A year ago, C.J. Cron was just trying to make the big-league roster after signing a minor-league deal with the Rockies.
Now, after leading the team with 28 home runs last season, the veteran first baseman is raking again. After hitting a two-run homer off Arizona lefty Madison Bumgarner Sunday, Cron is hitting .462 in Cactus League play.
Bumgarner had pitched high and inside to Cron earlier in the game but Cron made him pay by launching a 425-foot blast to left-center in the fourth inning.
In the sixth, Arizona closer Mark Melancon plunked Cron in the batting helmet. Cron hit the deck and was visibly upset. He left the game as a precaution.
“I just got a report that he’s fine,” manager Bud Black said after Arizona beat Colorado, 5-2. “He went through all of the concussion protocols. (The pitch) hit him on the shoulder and then the helmet.”
Cron is expected to supply power from the middle of the Rockies’ order. Black likes what he’s seen from Cron.
“He’s had a very good spring. Thatap great, right?” Black said. “Last spring he got off to a slow start, then turned it up in the end. Every spring is different but itap good to see that. Guys like hits, whenever they come, so it’s good to see.”
Lambert’s road. The Rockies are proceeding with caution with right-hander Peter Lambert, who underwent Tommy John surgery in July 2020. Though Lambert returned to make two big-league starts at the end of last season, he experienced some elbow pain before spring training opened. He’s better now, however, and is scheduled to throw his first “live” bullpen of spring on Monday.
“Everything’s good,” he said. “I’m ready to get going again and I’m excited to pitch in games again.”
Added Black: “We are being extra cautious and we also know there is going to be an innings limit for Peter this year. I don’t see Peter in a starting role and grinding out 200 innings. We will be judicious with how we use Peter. He had a little bit of elbow soreness at the tail end of the lockout and when he came in we put him on a slower pace.”
Colome debuts. Right-hander Alex Colome, the former Twins reliever who signed a one-year, $4.15 million deal with the Rockies, made his Cactus League debut Sunday. He was sharp, pitching a clean eighth inning, striking out two. He’s the leading candidate to close games.
“He looked good,” Black said. “He threw his fastball at 94 (mph) and his other pitches — his slider and his cutter — were in the low-90s. The pitches had great depth. He was sharp.”
Freeland’s changeup. Pitching against the Reds in Goodyear as part of a split-squad game, lefty Kyle Freeland’s line was not pretty. He gave up four runs on six hits in 3 2/3 innings. He also hit two consecutive batters in the second inning.
The problem, Freeland said, was trying to command his new changeup grip. Now he’s thinking about reverting back to his old grip.
“My changeup’s going to need an adjustment going into my next start because that was the thing that was hit hard today,” Freeland said. “We didn’t shy away from it, we wanted to throw it and find what adjustments I need to make on it. So we continued to throw it out here. That’s OK. It’s spring training. Everything else, though, was good.
“There’s a possibility we might abandon (the new grip). (I’m going to) be trying to make that adjustment between now and my start on Friday.”
Instead of the modified circle change that Freeland threw last season, he’s been experimenting with a three-fingered grip that resembles a forkball.
