Shorter swing helps Napoli go deep

Catcher Mike Napoli's recent power surge -- homers in four of his past five games, a career-high seven bombs in a month, a .743 slugging percentage since April 29 -- can be attributed to making his stroke more compact.

That is the judgment of Angels manager Mike Scioscia, who has been evaluating Napoli's stroke and approach intently since the big man from South Florida began launching homers as a rookie in 2006.

"At times Mike gets a little long with his swing," Scioscia said. "His early struggles forced him to kind of shorten up a little bit. By shortening up, he's getting a clean, crisp path to the ball. He doesn't need that [long swing] with his power.

"He's in a real good comfort level. Part of it is he's got his hands in a good position. With Mike swinging like he can ahead of the guys behind him, our lineup gets deeper."

Napoli, with 10 hits and five homers in his past 26 at-bats, is batting .324 in May after bottoming out at .167 in April. Sciosica, intent on keeping the lineup deep in the bottom third, kept the scalding-hot catcher in the No. 7 spot in Wednesday's series finale against Toronto right-hander Brandon Morrow.

By Lyle Spencer / MLB.com