SAN DIEGO _ Cardinals leadoff hitter Matt Carpenter had no hint, no indication that the next swing he was about to take would be his last for awhile, and that it would be a check swing at that.
But once he took it, he knew he was in trouble.
"No symptoms, no precursors," Carpenter said Monday during the All-Star media availability at the Grand Hyatt in San Diego. "I took a 3-1 changeup. On a check swing and I blew out right away. I knew exactly what it was. Felt like someone had stabbed me in the side."
In his first comments since injuring his oblique last week at Busch Stadium, Carpenter said he was told there was a "significant" tear along his right side. The injury is similar to one that he had in 2012, and it is along the same area as the injury that outfielder Tommy Pham had earlier this season.
It took Carpenter four weeks to return from his previous oblique injury.
It took Pham six weeks this season.
Carpenter is hoping for four _ at the most.
"I'm really hoping that it's the three- to four-week (recovery), and it's four on the long end," Carpenter said.
The Cardinals' leading hitter and their first selected All-Star this season is still a couple of weeks away from picking up a bat. He has been rehabbing at Busch Stadium, and in the week since the injury has already returned to weightlifting. His workouts are limited by what movements and strain his torso can handle because some soreness still persists in the area.
He had already scheduled a charter flight to San Diego for his family before the injury, so he opted to attend the All-Star Game and its festivities despite having to bow out of the game because of the injury.
He will stick through the entire game, too, as he intends to fly teammate Aledmys Diaz and his family home to St. Louis late Tuesday night.
