ST. LOUIS -- As the St. Louis Cardinals disappointed their fans and surprised their management these past few months with their mediocre play, they never really could blame injuries.
For a long while, they weren’t pitching well, but their entire rotation and the key bullpen pieces continued to make errors -- even with a full complement of healthy infielders. The offense was sometimes shut down by middling pitching, but the men who swing the bats were readily on hand.
And now the challenge is entirely different, which could be just what the Cardinals need, at last, to be galvanized in this topsy-turvy season. The team’s best player, Matt Carpenter, left Wednesday night’s game with a strained right oblique muscle. Carpenter’s side-grabbing reaction -- and his late-night date with an MRI machine -- told a pretty grim tale.
The Cardinals were offering few insights into the severity of the injury, but a similar issue cost Carpenter a month four seasons ago, and this one could be more serious.
“I’ve felt that injury. I’ve seen it. It can be tough,” manager Mike Matheny said.
The Cardinals romped to 100 wins with myriad injuries in 2015, which is no guarantee they can do it again, but they have been known to rally around fallen teammates. Matheny talks about it so much, the players can recite it by rote. It’s about the next man up.
“I’ll tell you what, it’s been like that the past couple of years,” said Kolten Wong, who most likely is, indeed, the next man up at second base. “We’ve had guys go down who we couldn’t really afford to, but we figure out ways to work around it.”
But for now, the mood is about as glum as can be. It didn’t help pep things up that Jaime Garcia and the bullpen went out and blew a 5-1 lead in a 7-5 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates on Wednesday night.
Run-scoring has been the only reliable function of this Cardinals team, and Carpenter, the leadoff guy, has been more than the spark. He has been the steady piston driving things. How many teams have a leadoff man who leads them with RBIs, as Carpenter does? His 14 home runs are third. Add Carpenter’s RBIs and runs scored, which of course double-counts home runs, and you’ve accounted for 25 percent of the Cardinals’ scoring this season.
Just as he did last season, Carpenter leads the team in most offensive categories. He also entered Wednesday leading the National League in on-base percentage (.421) and OPS (.991).
Losing Carpenter is the big blow, but it had been a lousy week before that. Brandon Moss sprained his ankle Monday and is now on the disabled list. Brayan Pena (knee) and Jhonny Peralta (thumb) both got hurt Tuesday, and Pena hit the DL on Wednesday, with Peralta hoping to return in the next couple of days.
The Cardinals have just four days until the All-Star break, and three of them are in Milwaukee, where they tend to win copiously. These games and the first few after the break will represent the Cards' biggest test of 2016 so far.
“I know we have guys who can jump in and do it. The test is the fact we’re just not playing the kind of baseball we want to play. That’s it,” Matheny said. “We’re going to have guys go down. You never want to see it happen, you want to get them back as quick as you can, but when it happens, somebody else has to step up. Right now, we’re just fighting to get a good feel.”
In discussing Carpenter’s All-Star credentials, both manager Matheny and general manager John Mozeliak spoke about his intangible qualities. Wong echoed those thoughts, noting the reliability of Carpenter’s at-bats on a daily basis.
“He’s almost the face of the franchise, not just for his success on the field, but for his leadership in the clubhouse and his evolution to be able to play multiple positions when asked,” Mozeliak said. “He never complains. He’s always been a great teammate and someone from an organizational standpoint you’re lucky to have.”
Last month, Carpenter agreed to move from third base back to second base to accommodate the rise of Aledmys Diaz and Peralta's return from injury. While error-prone at both positions, Carpenter looked more comfortable at second.
Carpenter's injury could be an ill-timed blow to his burgeoning career. He spoke at length Tuesday about how proud he was to have made his third All-Star team. He was named a reserve by NL manager Terry Collins. In Carpenter's first All-Star game, Mariano Rivera was the toast of the game for his final bow, then Derek Jeter was the man of the hour in Minneapolis. This All-Star game in San Diego will be David Ortiz's final appearance in the Midsummer Classic.
Carpenter spoke about what an honor it was to share the field with those great players. He told ESPN.com last week he would be “completely overjoyed” to be named an All-Star. He thought this first half was the finest of his career, particularly since he was batting .230 with three home runs on the first day of May.
"Yeah, I’m very prideful of that because it’s hard to do when you get off to a slow start," Carpenter said at the time. "But part of the reason I feel like it was able to happen is that during that slow start, not at one point did I feel like I was not in a good spot. It was surprising to me that the numbers weren’t showing up because I was having a lot of good at-bats."
If Carpenter is unable to play in San Diego, Diaz would be one of the leading candidates to replace him. Collins is not forced by rule to pick a Cardinal, but Diaz, who hit his 12th home run Wednesday and is batting .319, would seem to merit a long look nonetheless.
