Mets James McCann starting to hit since fill-in move to first base

First baseman James McCann is a .333 hitter with two home runs in four games.

Catcher James McCann is a .205 hitter with one home run in 34 games.

Perhaps, the temporary position change has awoken the hitter within. Maybe, the Mets should tell rehabbing first baseman Pete Alonso to take his time.

Saturday night was McCann’s best offensive performance as a Met. He homered, doubled and singled twice, keying their fourth straight win, a 13-2 rout over the Braves at Citi Field.

“Honestly, it’s just continuing to work and continuing to do the things I’ve been working on,” McCann said after the Mets’ fourth win in five games. “It came together in tonight’s game.”

On Monday, with the injury-depleted Mets in need of as many major league-caliber hitters as possible, they used McCann at first base to keep Tomas Nido in the lineup at catcher. McCann had never played the position as a professional, though he did play first base in college at Arkansas. So far, he has adapted well.

“The jitters I had at first aren’t quite the same,” said McCann, who credited Mets infield coach Gary DiSarcina and Alonso for helping him adjust to the position. “You start to get a little comfortable. At the same time, it’s something I’ll continue to work at.”

The move may have awakened the free agent acquisition’s previously dormant bat. He homered in his first game at first base and erupted on Saturday.

He had two extra-base hits in the same game for the first time this year. He had four hits in one game for the first time this season as well. His first three hits were rockets — all hit with an exit velocity of at least 100.6 miles per hour — and his fourth found a hole.

Perhaps most important, two of the hits went to the opposite field, and a third was blasted to dead center field. So often this year, McCann has tried to pull outside pitches, and either popped it up or rolled over on ground balls.

In his first at-bat, McCann laced a 94 mph Ian Anderson fastball over the right-center field fence to get the Mets on the board. In the third, he doubled over Guillermo Heredia’s head in center and took third on Heredia’s error. And in the fifth, McCann lined a single into the vacant hole where the second baseman usually plays, taking advantage of the shift against him. He added a run-scoring single in the sixth.

“Just [a] good approach against a guy like Ian Anderson, who is a tremendous pitcher,” manager Luis Rojas said. “You got to talk about McCann. His best offensive game with us so far.”

This post first appeared on Nypost.com

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