St. Louis Cardinals’ Chris Carpenter confident of leading team in World Series – MLB Update
With St. Louis Cardinals ready to host Game 1 of the World Series against Texas Rangers on Wednesday, October 19, Chris Carpenter believes that he has the ability and the momentum to give the Redbirds a handy lead in the seven-game series.
The Cardinals’ ace has shown immense versatility throughout the season, on and off the field. Although he took time to set his foot on the mound, Carpenter has been in top-form since the All-Star break and proved himself as the technically soundest pitcher
on the circuit when he outpitched Philadelphia Phillies’ Roy Halladay in the elimination game of the National League Division Series.
The Redbirds were 10.5 games behind Atlanta Braves in the Wild Card standings and it seemed quite evident that the latter will qualify for the postseason unscathed. However, the team believes that it was Carpenter’s leadership that inspired them to go all-out
in addition to manager Tony La Russa’s scheming tactics.
Commenting on the team’s meeting after which the team picked form, Carpenter said, "I don't think anybody liked the way that we looked or the way we were playing the last week or so before we had that meeting, and that was it. Did it help? I don't know.
You can ask all the other guys, too. I know that we started playing better after that."
The bull-pen has praised Carpenter immensely and believes that if their ace gives them a productive start in Game 1, as he has mostly done, it will be a matter of days before the Cardinals win their 11th World Series title and first since 2006.
Analysing how the team got this far is quite surprising. Carpenter tossed a two-hitter against the Houston Astros on September 28 to ensure qualification to the playoffs, before producing a three-hitter against the Phillies to guide the Cardinals further
in the pennant race. Picking up confidence from that performance, the team overcame an offensively strong Milwaukee Brewers in six games to bag the NL pennant and become the tenth Wild Card team in the history of Major League Baseball to make it to the Fall
Classic.
Not going overboard, Carpenter was quick to admit that the Rangers are an offensive powerhouse and it will not be easy to halt them at Busch Stadium.
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