St. Louis Cardinals’ Chris Carpenter earns praise from Tony La Russa – MLB Update
St. Louis Cardinals’ manager Tony La Russa was all praise for his ace Chris Carpenter after Game 1 of World Series against the Texas Rangers on Wednesday, October 19 at Busch Stadium in St. Louis, Missouri.
La Russa asserted that Carpenter has been soothing for the entire team throughout the postseason and has inspired the Cardinals to where they are at the moment. Reiterating his previous performances, La Russa added that the shutout performance against Houston
Astros on the last day of the regular season marked the beginning of Carpenter’s domination on the mound.
Referring to this game, the manager stressed that Carpenter’s dominant spell upfront was central to the team’s win and outlined the course of the game. La Russa established that the Rangers are an offensive powerhouse and have the ability to destroy any
bull-pen on their day. However, the Cardinals have been effective with their bull-pen and came out clean yet again against the American League stalwarts.
La Russa stressed that he was happy on using his ace in Game 1 and the team is now in a better position to dominate the seven-game series.
Carpenter became the first pitcher to toss six-plus innings for the Cardinals since the National League Division Series. Carpenter hurled a three-hitter against NL East Champions Philadelphia Phillies in the elimination game of the NLDS to win against long-time
friend Roy Halladay in what was termed as a historic matchup. The Phillies, after winning a record-breaking 102 games in the regular season, were favoured to prevail against the Wild Card entrants, but the underdogs had other plans in mind.
Carpenter helped the bull-pen overcome a resilient opposition from Milwaukee Brewers in the NL Championship Series to win the seven-game series 4-2 and thus the pennant for the first time since 2006. Furthermore, the Cardinals became the tenth Wild Card
team in the history of Major League Baseball to qualify for the Fall Classic.
Rangers’ manager Ron Washington, however, believed that it was Allen Craig who actually won the game for the Cardinals. He said, "The pinch hitter got it done, and ours didn't. Got to give them credit, they beat us. We didn't give that game away tonight."
With Game 2 scheduled for October 20, it will be vital to see how the visitors bounce back in a bid to level the series.
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