PHOENIX — James McCann finally contributed offensively in a manner that had been eluding him this season.

The slumping catcher smashed a two-run homer in the seventh inning Friday that proved substantial in the Mets’ 6-5 victory over the Diamondbacks in 10 innings.

Torrid starts by Francisco Lindor, Brandon Nimmo and Eduardo Escobar, among others, have helped cover for McCann, but the .120/.233/.160 slash line he brought into Friday was unsightly, even when compared to his disappointing first season with the Mets.

“Just a slow start, honestly,” McCann said before the game. “I made a few adjustments. I am still working on a few adjustments on top of a shortened spring training, missing time in spring training, so I do feel there has been a little bit of a catch up period.”

McCann missed a week in spring training because of back discomfort. It’s an ailment that forced him to the injured list last season, before which he arrived on a four-year contract worth $40.6 million.

If McCann were hitting he likely would be playing almost every day. But his offensive shortcomings have meant additional playing time for Tomas Nido, who has endured his own early offensive struggles (he has a .158/.150./.158 slash line).

Behind the plate, the Mets are much happier in the results they have received from McCann, whose pitch framing ranks in the 89th percentile, according to baseball savant. McCann had also thrown out two of three runners attempting to steal against him.

“That’s something I pride my game on is separating the offense from the defense because at the end of the day I know the way I can impact the game on the defensive side of things is always going to be greater than what I can do offensively,” McCann said. “Even in a big offensive day you are getting five at-bats, but defensively I am out there for 150 pitches or whatever it might be that day.”

McCann started slowly last season and never got on track, finishing with a .232/.294/.349 slash line with 10 homers and 46 RBIs in 121 games. He says there isn’t a correlation between the two seasons.

“Last year was last year,” he said. “There’s ups and downs. There’s a few things I have cleaned up from last year that despite not having results I am happy about. I have direction at the plate. Last year I didn’t have consistent direction.

“I was real rotational coming off balls, I wasn’t staying on balls that I should, which led to higher ground ball percentage and all sorts of other things that were byproducts of that, so despite the lack of results this early in the season my direction has been better and that is one of the things I have tried to clean up and will just continue to hone in on.”

Until he can collect a few more hits McCann will try to avoid looking at his numbers on the scoreboard.

“I learned very young in my career, playing with Torii Hunter, the difference in going 1-for-20 in April and doing it in July,” McCann said. “In April you feel terrible, but in July you have lost 10 to 15 points off your batting average, so the most challenging part starting slow is not chasing numbers. It’s trusting the process over 162 games.”