Rangers say World Series rainout won’t disrupt their momentum

Reporting from St. Louis — The Texas Rangers’ clubhouse took Wednesday’s postponement in stride, insisting Major League Baseball’s decision to push Game 6 of the World Series back a day won’t disrupt the team’s momentum.

“It’s just a rainout. We have a ton of experience dealing with these things,” infielder Michael Young said. “We’re not going to sit in our hotel rooms biting our nails all night. There’s nothing you can do about the weather. It’s really not a big deal.”

For second baseman Ian Kinsler, Texas’ being one win away from its first World Series title makes the delay slightly more nerve-racking. But it’s nothing he and his teammates can’t weather.

“It’s the World Series. We just have to wait one more day,” he said. “You get excited when you’re one game away. But you’ve got to kind of pull back the reins a little bit and make sure we don’t get ahead of ourselves.

“We’ve still got one more game to win.”

Lineup shuffle

The Cardinals are eight for 43 (.186) with runners in scoring position in the World Series and have left 39 men on base.

So after a dismal performance in Game 5, when St. Louis twice left the bases loaded, Manager Tony La Russa is moving switch-hitter Lance Berkman to the cleanup spot behind Albert Pujols and dropping slumping Matt Holliday to fifth.

Berkman is hitting a Series-best .389, and Holliday is batting .167 and has grounded into three double plays.

“We’ve had some misses with runners in scoring position because we weren’t aggressive with pitches to hit,” said La Russa, whose team has scored one earned run in the last two games. “We’ve had some bad at-bats because we’ve gone outside the strike zone, which is not good hitting.”

Pujols, who had five hits — three of them home runs — in Game 3 but hasn’t had a hit in any other game, said the batting order has no effect on what he does.

“I don’t care who I have in front of me nor behind me,” he said. “That’s not going to change my approach.”

Walking wounded

Holliday’s slump could be blamed in part on tendinitis in his right hand, which caused him to miss the first three games of the postseason. Even though La Russa dropped him a spot in the batting order, he predicted the outfielder was ready for a breakout performance.

“I hesitate to say it because I hate to add pressure to a guy, but it’s very possible that in one of the next two games Matt could be our hitting hero,” La Russa said. “Every time he takes an at-bat he gets closer and he just needs not to force it.”

As for the Rangers’ Josh Hamilton, who is dealing with a strained left groin he thinks could be a sports hernia, Texas Manager Ron Washington thinks Wednesday’s postponement could prove helpful.

“Any time you’re dealing with nagging injuries, any time you catch a break, it’s a positive,” Washington said. “How positive, I really don’t know.”

Kinsler wasn’t so sure.

“One day of rest is not going to cure anything,” he said. “There’s not going to be any miracles.”

kevin.baxter@latimes.com