After Matt Carpenter's abysmal April _ and the newly completed Budweiser Terrace at Busch _ you could argue Matt wasn't even the Cardinals' most valuable carpenter.
But now, he's not only the Cardinals' most valuable player, but might also be the National League's, too.
Carpenter entered Sunday leading the league in FanGraphs' WAR (wins above replacement, basically the MVP of all stats). And then he hit another homer in Sunday's win.
There are plenty of recent trends to be excited about in regard to the Mike Shildt Cardinals. But the ascension of Carpenter and teammates in these past two "close-out" games has been particularly eye-popping.
The only way the Cards were (and are) going to make up ground is to win multiple series. They'd already pocketed the Cubs series when they won Thursday's "close-out" game against Colorado.
They thus won the series 3-1 instead of splitting it ... and ending up in the same place they were, with four fewer games with which to make up ground. Carp had two hits that day.
And Sunday's "close-out" game at Pittsburgh was doubly important _ it not only won the series for St. Louis, it also pushed down the Pirates in the wild-card standings. Well, Carp's homer gave the Cards their first run, igniting the offense, which scored again that inning.
"I'm really not trying to hit home runs," Carpenter told reporters at PNC Park, where he hit his 29th homer. "I certainly never thought I'd be where I am right now."
Where he is, or should be, is in the MVP conversation. He's the most unlikely candidate, considering that on May 15, Carp had a .140 batting average and a .558 OPS.
Entering this week, Carpenter's on-base percentage is .394 and slugging percentage is .593, meaning he's got a .987 OPS. That's the best in the National League.
Yet on Sunday afternoon, MLB Network tweeted this query to its 1.4 million followers: "(Nolan) Arenado? (Freddie) Freeman? (Javier) Baez? Who's been the NL MVP up until this point of the season?"
No, Carpenter hasn't been in the conversation the whole season, but for a network that prides itself on advance stats usage, this omission was a surprise. Incidentally, here's thinking that Arenado will be the strongest of those three MVP candidates this August and September. He's Cirque du Soleil in purple pinstripes.
As for Carpenter, his lefty uppercut swing looks like, well, "Lefty" (this particular week in St. Louis, "Lefty" is Phil Mickelson and not Steve Carlton). He's barreling baseballs better than most anyone this summer _ and even for the whole season, Carp is second in the NL in barreled balls per overall batted balls (14.2, trailing just Paul Goldschmidt). This stat also shows that Carpenter was onto something when he decided not to tweak his swing much in the spring _ he knew he was still getting good wood on balls, even if they became outs.
But his low production numbers in April and May were unavoidable to the eye, which led us to one of the most fascinating moments of the season. Remember when the game was on the line and they pinch hit for Matt Carpenter?
It was mid-May and Carp was three for 23 against lefties. So in the eighth inning, Mike Matheny made a move that I praised at the time. He pinch-hit Harrison Bader for Carp (Bader flied out deep to right). From a baseball standpoint, the pinch-hitting made sense. It was even more surprising that Matheny himself made the decision. He revered his veterans. But he handled it like a pro and so did Carpenter. Both men's seasons took different paths in the coming weeks.
For Carp and the Cards, this 7-3 stretch has sure been fun. But it will not matter if they don't have similar success at Miami and Kansas City, two drastically different cities that share a similar current baseball malaise. Now is the time for St. Louis to gobble up wins, to fuel itself with confidence and a sense that the Cards are a new club under Shildt (or, just couldn't have gotten worse the way things were). This wild card race is tantalizing. Consider that teams in it include All-Star-laden Atlanta and the Dodgers, who added Manny Machado to the reigning league champs (but the Cards did get Tyson Ross!).
The Cards are having fun. They're making animal noises in the background of postgame interviews. They're smiling on the field _ what an energetic trio of outfield personalities Sunday with Bader, Marcell Ozuna and the great goofball Jose Martinez. And they're devouring more salsa than a dinner crowd at Hacienda.
And most important, Carp and the gang are rising to the moments in these series "close-out" games. And if the club plays well at Miami and Kansas City, here's thinking there will be some M-V-P chants at Busch from up in the Budweiser Terrace.
