Trout tries to put his foot down

OAKLAND — Mike Trout started the season without a hit in eight at-bats and then without an extrabase hit in 20 plate appearances. The home run the Angels center fielder launched Monday night at the Oakland Coliseum showed him he has risen out of an early slump.

“I feel, obviously, better at the plate,” Trout said. “Where I get in trouble is when I don’t get that foot down. The last couple games, it’s been coming back.”

Trout pointed to how many foul balls he has hit as evidence of poor timing. That is his typical barometer of how he’s feeling.

“And when you’re taking pitches and you’re not late seeing them through the zone,” he said. “And getting your foot down early. If you don’t get your foot down, your head’s moving, so, yeah: It’s gonna be tough to hit.”

But, above all else: The more balls he’s fouling off, the worse he’s hitting, he believes. And, indeed, statistics confirm the intuition. Trout fouled off 25 pitches through his first 30 plate appearances — 32% of all the strikes he saw. His career average is less than 26% of the strikes he sees.

Despite the struggles, Trout entered Tuesday’s game with a .736 OPS, above the major league average, in part because he had five walks. He went 0 for 4 Tuesday and is hitting .185.

Short hops

First baseman C.J. Cron was out of the Angels’ starting lineup for the second time in five games Tuesday. The 26-year-old has only two hits in 26 at-bats this season. “We need him,” Manager Mike Scioscia said. “You saw in the second half, when he came back up, how important he was to us. Right now, he’s just not where he will be.” …Tyler Skaggs will throw four innings for triple-A Salt Lake on Friday in his second regular season start on his way back from Tommy John surgery. Skaggs will then throw five innings twice for Salt Lake, according to Angels pitching coach Charles Nagy. With a six-inning start likely to follow, Skaggs is now unlikely to return to the majors until May. …The Angels won’t skip Nick Tropeano in the rotation after he started Monday. They could have, because of an off day Thursday.