DETROIT — All-Star catcher James McCann’s average saw a 40-point drop from .316 at the All-Star break to .276 over the weekend. But he started to get well again against his former team this week with five hits in his first 12 at-bats of a four game series against the Tigers.
“Just not pressing as much,” said McCann, who doubled off diving shortstop Jordy Mercer’s glove in the first inning Wednesday, scoring Tim Anderson with the first run of the series finale. “The hardest thing when you’re going through a tough stretch is you’re searching for hits and you start to press and start to swing at pitches that aren’t your pitches and it all kind of spirals into what makes it a bad stretch. The best thing you can do to come out of it is to relax.
“Allowing it to happen instead of trying to make it happen.”
McCann batted .240/.288/.366 in parts of five seasons with the Tigers, who drafted him in the second round of the 2011 draft. His work behind the plate handling the pitching staff has been highly valued, so whatever McCann provides offensively above career norms can be considered gravy.
To hit well above .300 would be a lot to ask, but keeping his hitting line close to where it’s at now — .282/.338/.458 — might not be out of the question. The .388 on-base percentage still ranks second among American League catchers, and the average (.282), slugging (.458) and OPS (.796) are third.
“It is what it is,” McCann said of the recent drop to a more reasonable expectation. “You look across at a six month season and there will be weeks that are really good and weeks that are really bad. Over the course of the season it all evens out.”
This was McCann’s second visit to Detroit after the Tigers declined to pick up his option in the offseason and the Sox signed him to a one year, $2.5 million deal that turned into one of the top bargains of baseball’s offseason.
“There’s a lot of memories here,” McCann said. “The stadium and the city. But at this point it’s just another road series.”
