Renteria Restores Order For Cards
By Kyle Veltrop - The Sporting News
September 26, 2002
A rundown of Edgar Renteria's attributes as a hitter -- high average, good speed, sound bat control, moderate power -- depicts someone who should hit at the top of the order. So what's he doing in the No. 6 or 7 hole?
Renteria thrives in the clutch, and Cardinals manager Tony La Russa doesn't want to lose him as a presence further down in the order who gets a lot of RBI chances. His .352 average with runners in scoring position ranks him seventh in the NL, and Renteria looms as a key October figure for the Cardinals, positioned behind a productive middle of the order.
Only Albert Pujols has delivered more critical, dramatic hits for St. Louis than Renteria, whose 10th-inning single against Houston on September 13 symbolically knocked the Astros out of the NL Central race. La Russa says the bigger the game, the more he expects from Renteria, who delivered the World Series-winning single for Florida in 1997.
Renteria, though, was a .236 hitter in the first half of last season. He has occasional pop, but Renteria came to think he was a home run hitter, and his swings often were wild. Since then, he has focused on putting the ball in play by driving it up the middle or into the gaps. He has become one of the toughest outs around -- particularly when the bases are busiest.
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