Everybody likes Mike

ST. LOUIS -- At last, the St. Louis Cardinals have discovered a way to keep Mike Napoli from hurting them in the World Series.

Unfortunately, the same rain that kept the Texas Rangers catcher off the field Wednesday night led to the postponement of Game 6 at soggy Busch Stadium, putting off the American League champion's attempt to close out the first title in franchise history to Thursday.

The Cardinals, desperate to stave off elimination, are therefore going to need find another solution, especially since all they've tried so far against the 29-year-old both at the plate and on the bases hasn't worked.

The way things are going, should the Rangers be able to seal the deal once play resumes, or in a Game 7 on Friday if needed, Napoli is likely to be named World Series MVP.

Through the first five games of the Fall Classic, and this edition certainly has lived up to that title, is batting .308 with two homers and nine RBIs, knocking in two or more in four different contests, a remarkable burst to the finish line in what Tampa Bay Rays manager Joe Maddon earlier dubbed "Year of the Napoli."

"Every time at this point of the year someone shows up, and for us it's Mike Napoli," Rangers manager Ron Washington said Wednesday as his club held a quick workout. "He just seems to be the guy that's in the right spot at the right time, and he's been delivering along with his other teammates.

"You know, I always say a superstar cannot be a superstar unless the surrounding guys do their job and give him an opportunity to be that star. So without his other teammates, he wouldn't have that opportunity, and that's the type of team we are. We believe in each other."

And right now certainly in Napoli, a long-time foe when he was with the AL West rival Los Angeles Angels turned driving post-season force.

The Rangers have the Toronto Blue Jays, in part, to thank for that, after general manager Alex Anthopoulos acquired him from the Angels, along with outfielder Juan Rivera, in the stunning Jan. 21 trade that sent outfielder Vernon Wells to California.

Though the Blue Jays didn't see him as a fit on their team, Anthopoulos knew Rangers GM Jon Daniels liked Napoli, and promptly began conversations leading to the deal for reliever Frank Francisco four days later.

Napoli was in the dark throughout the process, hearing nothing from Anthopoulos after the Blue Jays first picked him up, leaving him convinced his stay in Toronto was going to be a brief one.

"I guess he didn't want to welcome me to the team and four days later call me and be like, 'All right, we traded you again,'" Napoli said. "I understood it, but I thought it was weird and I put it in my mind that I was getting dealt again.

"I thought Toronto was a good opportunity for me to get a new start and play every day, get a lot of at-bats. I was excited, then I got traded again, and I made this my home."

While some Blue Jays fans are lamenting the deal right now, Napoli wasn't going to be a fit for the Blue Jays, who were committed to letting rookie J.P. Arencibia handle most of the work behind the plate.

They were also set on using Edwin Encarnacion at DH and Adam Lind at first base, leaving no real spot for Napoli to play on a regular basis. And they needed a reliever like Francisco - who after a slow start handled the ninth inning ably and as a Type B free agent will fetch a compensatory draft pick if he leaves this winter - more than they needed a bench player.

Also lost is that Napoli posted a hitting line of .232/.344/.529 with 12 homers and 33 RBIs in the first half of the season, the period when the Blue Jays could have used him most while Encarnacion struggled and Lind missed time with injury.

Of course it would have been nice to ride his second-half surge, when his line was .383/.466/.706 with 18 homers and 42 RBIs, but by then Francisco settled into his role and the Blue Jays wouldn't have had anyone to take his place.

So while he was unlikely to have changed their fortunes, he certainly made a mark with the Rangers, doing lots of damage with his bat and to the surprise of many, with his glove, taking playing time away from Yorvit Torrealba as the season went along.

That's why as much as people have focused on his production with the bat, he's even more proud of his work with his glove.

"I kind of got the label where I was just an offensive player and could hit for power, I really couldn't do it behind the plate," said Napoli, who is under club control for one more season. "But just coming over here, I settled in and got comfortable in my receiving and working with the pitchers. I'm glad that I can show that I can get it done on both sides."

That's been most evident in the playoffs, where he's made an impact on each of his team's three series so far. In the division series against Tampa, he batted .357 with a homer and four RBIs in the four games while in the ALCS against Detroit, he posted a .292 mark with one RBI and six runs scored.

With home fans chanting his name during every at-bat, Napoli has shifted his game up another gear at the World Series, particularly in Game 4, when he caught a shutout and ripped a three-run homer in the sixth to seal a 4-0 win, and in Game 5, when he doubled home the winning runs in a 4-2 victory and twice threw out Allen Craig trying to steal.

He's locked in at just the right time.

"You know, if you ever stood in the box as a hitter and you got 51,000 people chanting out your name, and you're already a focused player, it just brings that focus into play even more," Washington said. "And at this point of the season, it's more about focus than it is about the physical part of the game, because everyone at this point is physically tired.

"He's just a baseball player, he really is. It's to our advantage that he's been given these opportunities to come up in situations, and he's delivered for us."

Shi Davidi is the MLB Insider for sportsnet.ca. Come back to read his insight and opinion regularly.