"Not long after striking out with the bases loaded in the eighth inning of a 3-2 loss to the Mets on Monday, Braves catcher Brian McCann sounded as frustrated as anyone could ever recall during his career.

The four-time All-Star catcher was 16-for-77 (.208) in his past 23 games, with just two doubles, one homer and six RBIs. For the season, he was hitting .243 with three homers and 12 RBIs in 32 games before Tuesday.

He rode to the ballpark Tuesday with Mets right fielder Jeff Francoeur, the ex-Brave who roomed for several years with McCann and has known him since childhood.

"I feel bad for him," Francoeur said. "He's one of my best friends. This is the first time he's really gone through failure here, consistently, where he can't get out of it. Last year he [got] the glasses and boom, he got out of it and started raking."

McCann had more vision problems this season and recently began wearing sports glasses in games again, like he did after a stint on the disabled list for blurry vision in April 2009. He hoped offseason Lasik surgery had taken care of the problem, but now it's the other eye that's blurry.

Hitting coach Terry Pendleton said last week that he thought McCann was still getting accustomed to playing in glasses again, but also said he was sure McCann would never use it as an excuse. Pendleton was right.

"I'm fine," McCann said after Monday's 0-for-4, which also included grounding into a double play. "It's going to be an adjustment [wearing the glasses again, but] I'm seeing the ball fine.""