Chris Carpenter
Chris Carpenter
Christopher John "Chris" Carpenteris an American retired professional baseball starting pitcher. He played 15 seasons in Major League Baseballfor the Toronto Blue Jays and St. Louis Cardinals from 1997 to 2012. A Cy Young Award winner and two-time World Series champion, he was also a three-time All-Star selection. In addition, he was twice named the Sporting News National League Pitcher of the Year, and voted for a number of Comeback Player of the Year awards for surmounting injury...
ProfessionBaseball Player
Date of Birth27 April 1975
CityExeter, NH
When you're trying to learn and establish yourself and be consistent in the major leagues, it's hard to do that with the amount of pressure everybody from the outside is putting on you. But obviously all three of us were able to continue to be successful, move on and do the things everybody expected us to be able to do.
I think the toughest thing this year is going to be to continue to do what I did last year, and that's being mentally strong every fifth day and to be able to be consistent. Am I going to win as many games? I don't know. But I believe the mental part of the game, if I continue to do the things I did last year, the success I had was because of that.
Each start is a new start, a new game, ... I can't take anything from the last game into this next one except to continue to try to throw strikes down in the strike zone. I feel like my stuff is pretty good and I feel like I was able to control counts and I'm going to try to do that again.
We've got a great club, ... We've got to continue to play the way we've been playing in this series to continue to move on.
I try not to let it enter my mind because, again, we've got a long way to go, ... We've got a month left. I've got to go out and continue to compete for the rest of the month, and our main goal is to give ourselves a chance to be in the playoffs.
I just try to continue to go out and give my team a chance to win. With the defense and offense we have playing behind me, you're going to win a lot of ballgames.
If you go out there relaxed, you're going to give up runs. You have to go out and continue to compete and make pitches.
When I was out there in the sixth, my hands and my fingers started cramping up, ... The same thing happened when I went up to hit.
We have a solid staff and we have five guys that have experience and know how to pitch. It's going to be a fun year. We've still got to go out and play the games, but we have the potential. We'll see how it plays out.
I was in command of it all night,
It feels fine. I was a little stiff.
It feels nice to get zeros and get a win. You go out there to execute pitches and give your team a chance to win and I was able to do it all day.
I think people misunderstood, ... I had cramps all over my body. It wasn't just about my hand. I had it in my hamstring, my shoulder, both hands, my calves, so I'm not concerned about that. I think it was just a day that was hot.
I think everybody is ready to go and we're excited about this series.