Carpenter nails Pirates
PITTSBURGH — Chris Carpenter gave the same much-needed lift to the St. Louis rotation that Scott Rolen is providing to a Cardinals batting order that is sorely missing star Albert Pujols.
Carpenter held the Pirates to three hits and struck out a career-high 13 in seven shutout innings in his best start since April, and Rolen had four hits to lead St. Louis past Pittsburgh 2-1 Tuesday night.
"My stuff was as good as it ever has been," said Carpenter, who had won only once since beating the Pirates twice in a week's time in April. "Those guys are a good hitting team, but when you can execute a game plan and don't make a lot of mistakes, you can have some success."
Much like Rolen is having, going .481 (13-of-27) since Pujols went on the 15-day disabled list June 4 with a strained muscle in his right side. Rolen doubled and scored on Juan Encarnacion's single in the fourth, then doubled again an inning later to drive in the Cardinals' second run after So Taguchi drew a two-out walk from Oliver Perez.
"We are a good ballclub with him in the three-hole, but I think we're a good enough club to win the division," Rolen said of the absent Pujols. "We miss him, we miss his bat, but he's not there so I can't go out there and approach my at-bats any differently because I'm in 3-hole, rather than 4th or 5th."
Maybe facing the Pirates was all Carpenter (5-3) needed to again resemble the pitcher who went 21-5 and won the Cy Young Award last season.
The right-hander is 8-1 against the Pirates in his career and 3-0 this season, allowing the NL Central rivals only two runs in 21 innings. He has only two victories in his other nine starts, sitting out 2Z\x weeks with shoulder bursitis.
Carpenter's start was badly needed by a rotation that had allowed 37 runs in 41 innings in its previous eight games.
Carpenter couldn't have been much sharper in his second start since coming off the disabled list, surpassing his career high of 12 strikeouts — done twice last season — while not allowing a hit after Sean Casey's two-out double in the third.
Another sign of how well Carpenter pitched: He threw 71 of 111 pitches for strikes, striking out five of the final six he faced.
"That's why he's a Cy Young Award winner," Casey said. "He had every pitch working. His ball was heavy and down all night."
Jason Isringhausen allowed two hits and Craig Wilson's sacrifice fly in the ninth inning but he struck out Ronny Paulino with the potential tying run on third for his 21st save. It was the 161st save for Isringhausen with St. Louis, one more than Lee Smith's previous team record.
Perez (2-8) pitched much better than he did while being roughed up for 14 runs and 14 hits in five innings over his last two starts, giving up two runs and seven hits over seven innings. The left-hander was coming off a 16-9 loss to Colorado in which he was pulled after giving up nine runs in two innings — elevating his ERA to 7.18.
"I missed on a couple of pitches, but I threw all my pitches for strikes and threw good," Perez said.
