Chris Carpenter News

Jason Isringhausen felt a little bit like a proud papa watching Adam Wainwright get four outs to save Game 5 of the NL championship series. The St. Louis Cardinals' closer is out for the season after hip surgery last month, and has been serving as a mentor for Wainwright, a 24-year-old rookie who's taken over his role. Wainwright caught Jose Valentin for a called third strike to end the eighth and strand runners at second and third, ...

The day before the NL championship series started, St. Louis Cardinals general manager Walt Jocketty joked about his team's underdog status. ``I don't even know why we're playing,'' Jocketty said. ``According to some people.'' Now, the team that limped to the NL Central title is on the brink of its second World Series appearance in three seasons. A 4-2 victory over the New York Mets in Game 5 on Tuesday night gave the Cardinals a 3-2 lead and ...

Cardinals ace Chris Carpenter will start Game 2 of the NL championship series against the Mets on Friday instead of the third game, with St. Louis manager Tony La Russa making the switch a day after the opener was rained out. Carpenter, the reigning NL Cy Young Award winner, was 2-0 with a 2.03 ERA in the Cardinals' first-round win over San Diego and is 4-0 with a 2.10 ERA ...

Just like last year, the St. Louis Cardinals breezed by the San Diego Padres and into the NL championship series. Chris Carpenter recovered from a shaky start for his second victory of the series, Juan Encarnacion hit a tiebreaking triple and the Cardinals beat the San Diego Padres 6-2 Sunday night to win their best-of-five first-round NL playoff 3-1. St. Louis nearly wasted a seven-game lead in the final two ...

The Cardinals started ace Chris Carpenter in Game 4 against the Padres, deciding not to save him for either the NL championship series opener at New York or a possible fifth game at San Diego. Manager Tony La Russa had held back Carpenter on the last scheduled day of the regular season, opting to save Carpenter for a possible makeup game against San Francisco, a tiebreaker with Houston or the post-season opener. ``It's a different set of circumstances. ...

Now Chris Carpenter has the chance to put the St. Louis Cardinals back into the NL championship series. Following Saturday's 3-1 loss to the San Diego Padres, St. Louis still had a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five NL playoff and the opportunity to close out the first-round series at home Sunday. ``Carpenter's a Cy Young candidate,'' shortstop David Eckstein said. ``We feel very confident.'' As usual, Carpenter, the one-time Toronto Blue Jay, was sparse with his words and ...

The St. Louis Cardinals changed starters for Sunday's regular-season finale against Milwaukee, going with rookie Anthony Reyes on three days' rest and saving ace Chris Carpenter. The Cardinals had a 1{-game lead over second-place Houston and a magic number of one to clinch the NL Central entering the final scheduled day of the regular season. If St. Louis lost and Houston won at Atlanta, the Cardinals would play at home ...