As desperately as the St. Louis Cardinals needed Chris Carpenter to be the Carp of old on Friday night, he just couldn’t come through. The Cardinals came in on a six-game losing skid and were looking to their ace to right the ship.
Carpenter came out and gave up three runs in the first two innings, and the Cardinals found themselves playing from behind once again. It seems the days of the dominant, Chris Carpenter slump-busting performances may be a thing of the past.
While Carpenter has had some tough luck in his 1-7 start to the season, the vast majority of his record is a result of him missing locations and not making quality pitches when he needed to.
Since May 15, Carpenter has an 0-5 record in seven starts, 48.2 innings pitched allowing 55 hits, 25 earned runs (4.62 ERA) and opponents are batting .282 against him during that span.
One thing that has always been a credit to Carp is that he doesn’t make excuses. After last night’s game, according to the St. Louis Post Dispatch, Carp had this to say,
“I’m not going to sit here and fret on what’s going on. I’m not scared to call myself out or question myself if I’m not doing what I need to do. There are all kinds of silly things you can analyze in a game, but if I sit there and do that, I’ll have no chance to pitch the next time. I’ll drive myself crazy.”
Hopefully, for the Cards sake, Carpenter can find the rhythm that brought him three All-Star appearances, three top-three finishes in the Cy Young voting and a Cy Young award.
If he does, the Cardinals will have a great chance to find themselves playing into October. If not, it could turn out to be a long summer.
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