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
We clinched and there was nothing on the line anymore,
Granted, as a competitor, the games mean a lot to you. But we clinched, and there was nothing on the line anymore, everybody was talking about who we're going to play and what day we're going to play and where, all that stuff. You lose a tiny little edge and you get beat.
You can say whatever you want. The results weren't there but ... we've pitched well all year and we've got five veteran guys ready to go out and compete. I don't see any difference when we start the series. I think we've got guys who are going to be prepared to come out and pitch. You get to a certain point in the season with 2 1/2 weeks left. Granted, as a competitor the games mean a lot to you. You want to go out and win and do well. But we clinched and there was nothing on the line anymore.
You can say whatever you want, ... The results weren't there but ... we've pitched well all year and we've got five veteran guys ready to go out and compete. I don't see any difference when we start the series. I think we've got guys who are going to be prepared to come out and pitch. You get to a certain point in the season with 2 1/2 weeks left. Granted, as a competitor the games mean a lot to you. You want to go out and win and do well. But we clinched and there was nothing on the line anymore.
When you do that it's tough for them to elevate the ball.
We've got to forget about tonight. We didn't win it tonight, we just won one game.
You hope that you win. But when you're talking about the quality of seasons those other guys had, there's nothing you can say about it (if someone else won).
We had that last year, we have that this year.
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.
We have five guys who have been here before. At this point in the season, if you don't have a guy on the mound who believes that he can be that No. 1 guy, you're not going to have a whole lot of success. We have five guys who can go out there and win at any time.
I got my work in and I'm ready to go. I kept the ball down.
I didn't make very many good pitches in the second inning,
I'd lie if I don't say that it crosses my mind, ... But those are the things that I might think about for about 30 seconds, and then get rid of them. Because all that is, is stuff in your head that you don't need to think about.
I was so locked in the whole season and then we clinched, and there were some other things going on that you start looking ahead, ... By keeping myself fresh and staying healthy to get me through the end of the season you lose that little edge.