Matt Carpenter Returns

(Busch Stadium) After spending 24 days on the disabled list with a strained oblique, Matt Carpenter has been activated to the active roster by the St. Louis Cardinals. Left-handed reliever Dean Kiekhefer has been optioned to Memphis.

“I’m real excited,” said Carpenter after his pregame warm-ups. “It feels like forever since I’ve been out here–it has been about a month, so in baseball time that’s quite a bit. I’m excited and I’m ready and hopefully I can do something going forward to help us win some games.”

Though he enjoyed the extra time at home with his wife and newborn daughter, having to watch his team over the last month from the sidelines was especially rough for Carpenter.

“It’s no fun,” he said. “I love to play the game. There’s no sugar-coating that, it’s just the way it is. I love to do this, I love what I do for a living and anytime it’s taken away from you it’s not fun–especially for an injury. I’m really glad to be back.”

Over a four game rehab stint in Springfield (AA), Carpenter hit .333 (4-12) with a double and home run. Defensively, he started three games at second base and one at third.

“Kind of what we’ve done most of this season, we’ve had a lot of flexibility,” answered Mike Matheny if Carpenter would be the everyday second baseman moving forward. “Second base is obviously a position that we like him at, but not to say that third can’t be an option also.”

In 78 games with St. Louis, Carpenter is batting .298 (85-for-285) with 14 HR’s and 53 RBIs. And he brings stability to the lead-off position.

“My swing felt great before I got hurt and it feels good now,” said Carpenter. “One of the positives is you get a lot of rest, so from a physical standpoint–strength and all that stuff, I’m ready to go.”

The Cardinals went 14-10 during Carpenter’s absence and find themselves 9.5 games in back of Chicago in the NL Central race.

“It can’t fall on one guy for that kind of deal,” responded Carpenter to the idea of being a catalyst to get the team going. “We’ve got a great team and we’re going to need a little bit of help from everybody, but I would like to think I can definitely help us get going in the right direction and hopefully that starts today.”

Time is beginning to be an issue for the Cardinals as entering tonight they have completed 108 games (57-51) of their schedule.

“Considering what we want to do, we’ve got quite a hole as far as the division goes, but certainly not impossible,” said Carpenter. “I mean, it’s going to be hard but it’s not impossible. We’re right where we want to be Wild Card wise. That’s a lot of games left to do some work–both good and bad. We can turn this thing around and trend upwards or we could go the other way because of how many games are left.”

“We’re starting to get some pieces back healthy–Brandon a couple days ago, Jhonny, myself. We’re just gonna look to get on a roll now. That’s…doesn’t need a meeting to have that happen. I think we’ve just got to go out and do it.”

photo credit: Bill Greenblatt/UPI