Red Sox Notebook: Team must wait on Mike Napoli

As Mike Napoli turned on batting practice pitches and watched them fly over the Green Monster and somewhere onto Lansdowne Street, his manager pondered why Napoli couldn’t do that more often this year.

Napoli, 33, is enduring the worst season of his career. After going 0-for-2 last night, he’s hitting just .197 with 10 home runs, 31 walks and 68 strikeouts in 260 plate appearances, which is a large enough sample to force the Red Sox to wonder if he’s worthy of continued everyday at-bats.

Compared to other major league first basemen, Napoli’s numbers pale. To wit, the Red Sox ranked 30th in average (.198) and OPS (.639) in production (entering last night) from first base, which historically is…