Texas Rangers’ Mike Napoli positive after winning Game 4 against St. Louis Cardinals – MLB Update
Texas Rangers’ catcher Mike Napoli lashed a three-run homer in the sixth inning of Game 4 against the St. Louis Cardinals to help the home-team bring the seven-game series back in contention, drawing level at two-games each after a humiliating 7-16 loss
in Game 3 of the Fall Classic.
In their first ever trip to the World Series last year, the Rangers lost to San Francisco Giants in five- games, but are now assured of going beyond that point. A major reason behind that was misjudgement by Cardinals’ manager Tony La Russa, who handed the
ball to Mitchell Boggs instead of regular reliever Fernando Salas in the game changing sixth inning.
Edwin Jackson had kept things under control till the fifth inning, but a lacklustre start to the sixth inning forced La Russa to employ a relief pitcher. Failing to help the Redbirds out of that situation, Boggs threw a pitch right in the slot for Napoli
to produce a gigantic hit down left-field.
Explaining the feat, Napoli stressed that Boggs has a good sinker, but failed to capitalise on his chance solely because he was trying to get a double play ball. He continued that he got a pitch which he was looking for and thus made full use of the opportunity.
Napoli asserted that he was not worried about the fact that he was hitting at eighth in the line-up. He stated that manager Ron Washington took him into confidence before finalising the offensive strategy and this motivated him to keep his strategy the same
as it would have been on any other day.
The catcher played a vital role in keeping starter Derek Holland’s emotions under control, a major reason that helped the Rangers blank the Cardinals in the crunch encounter. Napoli asserted that Holland never lost focus on the mound and followed the plan
as it had been mapped out. An intriguing factor for the success of this pair was the ever-growing chemistry, on and off the field.
Napoli pointed out that this year has been fascinating for him and his hard-work has surely paid off, but a World Series crown will be a perfect ending to the season.
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