Rush of Lefties Means Lots of Napoli

Between the Oakland A's, the Houston Astros and the Seattle Mariners — who the Rangers play their 10-game homestand against beginning Friday night against the A's — Texas is going to face a lot of left-handed starters.

Some of them are average ones (Sean Nolin), while others are great ones (Scott Kazmir and AL Cy Young favorite Dallas Keuchel) as well as others who have recently owned them (Vidal Nino). Either way, it's going to be a lot of lefties run out against the Rangers as they try to claw their way to the top of the AL West, or at the very least, cling to an AL Wild Card spot, with 24 games remaining in the regular season.

What's all this mean? Well, it means Rangers fans will finally get a lot of what they've clamored for since he was acquired at the beginning of August from Boston. It means a lot more of Mike Napoli in the Rangers' lineup.

There's still a lot of warm and fuzzy feelings about Napoli from Rangers fans, and with good reason. He carried them on his back in 2011 and would've been the World Series MVP had the Rangers avoided their Game 6 collapse against the St. Louis Cardinals. He was phenomenal.

He's not that player anymore, as he's been relegated to nothing more than a platoon first baseman against lefties, but since joining the Rangers, he's been pretty dang good against southpaws.

Napoli is batting .385 against lefties with two homers in 26 at-bats, and he's always hit well in Arlington. The Rangers will need him to do that some more this coming week, and he'll have plenty of opportunities at it.

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