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
I thought I was pulling off the ball. I was trying to make the adjustment. I would, and then I'd throw a few pitches to a hitter, and then go right back to it again. So it was just one of those days. For some reason I wasn't able to make the consistent adjustment to keep me where I needed to be, and I battled.
Shows consistency. But that's what my goal is: trying to be consistent as often as I can. I've said this (before): If you go out and be consistent and give this team a chance to win with the defense, offense and bullpen we have, we're going to win a lot of games.
I felt good. I definitely felt better than my last two starts mechanically. My sinker was better. My cutter was better. My command was better. What allowed me to finish the game was taking the ninth like it was the first. If you rush through the ninth trying to get outs, you're not going to complete that game.
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.
We had that last year, we have that this year.
The sheer number of claims and inquiries can be overwhelming -- tremendous energy is required just to get your arms around the problem.
I've been in this situation, blowing a 2-0 lead.
They are a lot like our club. They take quality at-bats. They are patient and they have an idea about what they are doing and the pitcher they are facing. They've got speed. They've got some guys who can hit the ball out of the park. They have got quality guys from top to bottom, and you've definitely got to be on your game and make quality pitches to get these guys out.
There's not a lot of people that come from this area or this state that play in the big leagues, never mind win the Cy Young, ... To be part of that is unbelievable and to be part of this situation is unbelievable. I can't believe I won.
That's the way it works. You go out and try to do the best you can to give your team a chance to win. Unfortunately, we didn't win tonight. But tomorrow, we can come back and do a better job.
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.