McCann battling through sluggish start to season

NEW YORK -- Brian McCann's sixth-inning single on Thursday snapped a hitless string of 15 at-bats for the Yankees catcher, who is fighting to come out of a sluggish offensive start to his pinstriped career.

McCann entered play on Friday batting .225 with three homers and 10 RBIs in his first 24 games as a Yankee, but wasted no time improving those numbers, taking Rays ace David Price deep in the second inning of the series opener.

He has had some company in struggling at the plate of late, but that isn't making the stretch easier to swallow.

"It's baseball. It happens," McCann said. "There's going to be times when everybody's clicking and we're putting up a lot of runs. I think you look over the course of 162 games, we're going to be successful more times than not."

McCann was a five-time Silver Slugger winner during his Braves career. He posted just a .614 OPS through his first 89 at-bats as a Yankee, the lowest among the 16 qualifying catchers in the Majors.