Chris Carpenter Last Quotations

When I came back last year, I had in my mind I wasn't going to take anything for granted, ... I knew where I was in 2002, and all of a sudden, it was taken away from me. It's your dream and you're playing in the big leagues and it's all you've ever wanted to do.

I felt good. I definitely felt better than my last two starts mechanically. My sinker was better. My cutter was better. My command was better. What allowed me to finish the game was taking the ninth like it was the first. If you rush through the ninth trying to get outs, you're not going to complete that game.

My roommate went out after the storm and he did a little looting himself for water and food for the dog. That's the last I heard of him. I still haven't found him yet. That worries me because he would call me.

My stuff was better than it had been in my last two (starts). It was just a strange game. I made a few mistakes but there were a lot of infield hits, a lot of broken-bat hits. It was just one of those nights.

I think the toughest thing this year is going to be to continue to do what I did last year, and that's being mentally strong every fifth day and to be able to be consistent. Am I going to win as many games? I don't know. But I believe the mental part of the game, if I continue to do the things I did last year, the success I had was because of that.

I really felt that there was more in there, ... When I came back last year, I knew I wasn't going to take anything for granted. ... Mentally, I grew up a lot.

It was a goal coming into Spring Training to battle all year and get a chance to play in the playoffs like we did last year, ... My only goal was to stay healthy and try to be consistent all year, and have a chance to be here with this team, and it's worked out.

You can't take the results from your last start into your next one. You have to prepare differently and prepare yourself to go out and execute pitches.

Each start is a new start, a new game, ... I can't take anything from the last game into this next one except to continue to try to throw strikes down in the strike zone. I feel like my stuff is pretty good and I feel like I was able to control counts and I'm going to try to do that again.

It was frustrating last year not to be a part of it, but you know, I'm excited about it and looking forward to tomorrow night and competing against a quality club. These guys have been playing well and they have got a good team and we've got to go and play our best baseball.

We had that last year, we have that this year.

I definitely felt better than I felt the last couple of starts, mechanically, ... I felt like I was getting through the ball a lot better. My sinker was better, my cutter was better and my command was better.

All that stuff - the awards, the stats, all that stuff - goes back in the box when you get down here. It's not about last season anymore. It's about what's in front of us.