Brian McCann couldn’t recall a longer session with a hitting coach on a day off than the one he spent with Kevin Long on Tuesday, but he had a pretty good reason for it.
“I’ve never sat here at .220 at the All-Star break,” McCann said before the Yankees dropped their fifth straight on Wednesday, a 6-3 loss to the Rays. “It’s frustrating. I’m not a 220 hitter. I’m way better than that and I need to start showing it.”
He at least got some immediate results from the extra work, with a first-inning single and then a home run into the short right-field porch the Yankees thought McCann was going to see much more of when they signed him in the offseason.
While some players would rather clear their heads when they get a day off during a slump, McCann opted to go in the opposite direction.
“I needed to work and get some things ironed out,” McCann said. “I’m trying to get to a better hitting spot and simplify things and that’s not going to happen unless I’m working. I’m feeling better now than before.”
Long, who said McCann was “on a mission”, could already see the results.
“It looks like he made a positive step today,” the hitting coach said.
But for the foreseeable future, at least, the new Yankees catcher is trying to avoid looking at his numbers.
“I’d like to not see them at all,” McCann said. “But there’s no way you can’t see the average. It’s everywhere at every ballpark we go to.”
That leaves McCann with little choice.
“I’m just going to have to put it out of my mind,” McCann said. “I can’t afford to let my mind get cluttered with that kind of stuff. I have to worry about that game, that at-bat and not about what got me to this spot.”