Chris Carpenter participant of 2005 Major League Baseball season
Christopher John Carpenter (born April 27, 1975) is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played 15 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Toronto Blue Jays and St. Louis Cardinals from 1997 to 2012. A Cy Young Award winner and two-time World Series champion, he was also a three-time All-Star selection. Additionally, he was twice named the Sporting News National League Pitcher of the Year, and received votes for a number of Comeback Player of the Year awards after various surmounting injuries.
The Blue Jays selected Carpenter in the first round of the 1993 amateur draft from Trinity High School in New Hampshire. He made his MLB debut for Toronto in 1997. However, injuries and ineffectiveness delayed his career before the Blue Jays released him in 2002. After the Cardinals signed him, he emerged as an ace in 2004, winning the Cy Young Award in 2005 and helping lead the Cardinals to World Series titles in 2006 and 2011. For much of his career, Carpenter relied on a cutter that produced a heavy bore and finished with a sharp drop, a 12-to-6 curveball, and a sinker.
Multiple injuries that were deemed career-threatening—including three surgeries on his elbow, two on his shoulder and another on his rib cage—caused Carpenter to miss nearly five full seasons. However, he rehabilitated and returned to pitch after each of these injuries. In nine seasons playing for the Cardinals, he won 95 regular-season games and compiled a 3.07 ERA in 197 starts and 1348+2⁄3 innings pitched. His .683 winning percentage during that period led the Major Leagues. In 18 postseason starts, he won 10 games with a 3.00 ERA over 108 innings.Cy Young Award winner (2005)
The Cardinals called on Carpenter for his first Opening Day start for the club in 2005, and second of his career. He faced off against the Astros for his first for the Cardinals and second overall, allowing four hits in seven innings in a 7–3 win. On April 15, he signed a two-year extension through 2007 with a vesting option for 2008. He earned his first shutout in three years against the Chicago Cubs on April 21, and, on April 27, tied a career-high by striking out 12 Milwaukee Brewers in 7+2⁄3 innings.On June 14, Carpenter hurled a one-hit shutout against the team that drafted him, the Blue Jays, while striking out 10 in a 7–0 win. It was the 19th complete game one-hitter in Cardinals history. That contest launched the first of his 17 consecutive starts the Cardinals won, a streak that spanned until September 23. Other streaks coincided with that game. One was a 13-game personal winning streak with a 1.36 ERA over 16 starts, during which he yielded just 20 earned runs in 132+1⁄3 innings. Second, he was the first pitcher in the live-ball era (since 1920) to go undefeated in 16 consecutive starts, complete seven innings or more, and allow three or fewer runs in each game. Third, dating back to May 7, he also produced 22 consecutive quality starts. Fourth, he won his first 12 road starts of the season. Fifth, he was the first NL pitcher to win 10 consecutive road outings since Bob Gibson in 1970. Two starts after playing against Toronto, Carpenter picked up his third complete-game shutout against Pittsburgh, striking out 11 in an 8–0 win. He allowed four earned runs in 40 innings for a major-league leading 0.90 ERA in June. From June 25 to July 6, he threw 21+2⁄3 consecutive scoreless innings, a career high.With 13 wins before the All-Star break, Carpenter became just the third Cardinals pitcher ever to achieve the feat, following Joaquín Andújar in 1984 and 1985, and Kent Bottenfield in 1999. He was picked to start an All-Star Game at Comerica Park in Detroit, the first Cardinals pitcher in 32 years since Rick Wise to do so. He pitched one scoreless inning. On another occasion facing Clemens on July 17, Carpenter struck out nine Astros while giving up just three hits and no walks as St. Louis won, 3–0. It was his sixth consecutive start allowing one or no runs. He yielded five earned runs over 40+2⁄3 innings in July for a 1.11 July ERA (second in MLB), 33 strikeouts, seven walks and 24 hits, and one home run. Carpenter became the first Cardinals pitcher since Andújar in 1985 to record 15 wins before August 1. Carpenter's August resulted in a 4–0 record, 2.17 ERA, 38 strikeouts and six walks in six starts. On September 3, he won a complete game in Houston to become the majors' first 20-game winner. It was his 28th start, making him the fastest Cardinal to win 20 since Dizzy Dean in his 23rd start in 1934. With a 2–0 record, 1.69 ERA, 13 strikeouts and 16+2⁄3 innings, Carpenter won his first NL Player of the Week Award for the week ending September 4. On September 23, the Cardinals' streak of winning 17 consecutive starts by Carpenter ended with a 9–6 loss to Milwaukee.For the second consecutive season, the Cardinals repeated as Central division champions, and won at least 100 games with the best record in the National League. Carpenter set career bests with a 2.83 ERA, 213 strikeouts, 241+2⁄3 innings, seven complete games, four shutouts and a 21–5 record. as the club won 26 of his 33 regular season starts. While not a leader in any one major statistical category in 2005—aside from leading MLB in complete games—he was the only pitcher to finish in the top five in all of MLB in the pitching Triple Crown categories (ERA, wins and strikeouts). In road games, he went 12–1 in 15 starts with a 2.90 ERA, ranking fifth in the NL. The .923 winning percentage on the road is highest in franchise history for all pitchers with at least 10 wins on the road. He was the first Cardinals pitcher to strike out 200 in a season since José DeLeón in 1989.Finally healthy for an entire season, Carpenter pitched in the postseason for the first time in his career, debuting on October 4 against the Padres in Game 1 of the National League Division Series (NLDS). In six shutout innings, he earned the win in an 8–5 margin, but left due to hand cramping. The Cardinals defeated the Padres in the NLDS but fell to the Astros in the National League Championship Series (NLCS). His combined postseason totals were a 2–0 record with a 2.14 ERA in 21 innings.After winning several awards for his regular season performance, Carpenter was the National League Cy Young Award winner. He amassed 19 first-place votes for 132 points while runner-up Dontrelle Willis of the Florida Marlins garnered 112 total points. Carpenter became just the second pitcher in team history to win a Cy Young Award since Gibson, who had last won in 1970. He won the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) Players Choice Award for the National League Outstanding Pitcher, and the Sporting News Award for the National League Pitcher of the Year. He also won the This Year in Baseball Starting Pitcher of the Year Award. To recognize his selection as the NL Outstanding Pitcher, MLBPA Trust contributed $20,000 to Kristen's Gift in Lebanon, New Hampshire. The St. Louis chapter of the Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA) selected him, along with Albert Pujols, as co-St. Louis Baseball Man of the Year Award winners. He finished eighth in the NL MVP voting, the highest placement of all pitchers.