Matt Carpenter Must Be the New Engine of the Cardinals Offensive Attack

The St. Louis Cardinals hit so many big home runs in Sunday's win over the San Francisco Giants that it was easy to forget about Matt Carpenter.

If the Cards are going to win the National League Championship Series and advance to their third Fall Classic in four years, though, they'll need Carpenter to stay memorable.

So far, he has. Carpenter followed his breakout 2013 campaign with a perfectly respectable '14, hitting .272 with an NL-leading 95 walks. But he has truly come alive in October.

The Cardinals' third baseman has now smacked four home runs in 24 at-bats this postseason, half as many as the eight he hit in 595 regular-season at-bats. He was especially potent in the Cardinals' National League Division Series win over the Los Angeles Dodgers, going 6-for-16 with seven RBI and taking prohibitive Cy Young front-runner Clayton Kershaw deep.

"He doesn't get intimidated by a situation or by the circumstances that he's in," St. Louis skipper Mike Matheny told reporters after the NLDS.

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In Game 1 of the NLCS on Saturday, Carpenter went a quiet 1-for-4. He wasn't alone; Giants ace Madison Bumgarner, who tossed 7.2 scoreless frames, befuddled nearly every St. Louis hitter.

On Sunday, after striking out in his first at-bat against veteran right-hander Jake Peavy, Carpenter broke the scoring seal with a towering solo shot to right in the third. 

The Cardinals would go on to hit four one-run jacks in the game, including a walk-off home run by rookie second baseman Kolten Wong in the ninth. 

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The contest, a nail-biting affair all the way, featured a game-tying home run by pinch hitter Oscar Taveras in the seventh and a go-ahead home run by Matt Adams in the eighth.

The Giants tied it in the top of the ninth on a wild pitch by Cardinals closer Trevor Rosenthal, which scored pinch runner Matt Duffy from second. A half-inning later, Wong sent one over the right field wall and sent the white-towel-waving Busch Stadium faithful home happy.

Nearly lost in the din was Carpenter's contribution, but it was an excellent sign for St. Louis. His 390-foot blast didn't just help the Cards even the series at 1-1 as the scene shifts to San Francisco; a hard-revving Carpenter could drive the offense moving forward, especially with questions swirling around the health of catcher Yadier Molina, who left in the sixth inning Sunday.

Molina failed to make it out of the batter's box on a ground ball and was helped off the field with what ESPN.com's Buster Olney reports is a strained oblique:

The 32-year-old's status for the remainder of the NLCS is unclear. Even before the injury, Molina was 5-for-21 in October with one extra-base hit. Another key St. Louis bat, left fielder Matt Holliday, is hitless in the NLCS.

So far, the Cards have cruised behind an unexpected power surge. After hitting an NL-low 105 home runs in the regular season, St. Louis has mashed a postseason-high 11 dingers.

That's due in no small part to Carpenter, a leadoff hitter with a slim build who is no one's idea of a prototypical masher. Really, Carpenter's game is built around plate discipline, as CBSSports.com's Dayn Perry recently outlined:

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This season no one had a lower swing percentage on pitches outside the zone than Carpenter's mark of 19.3. As well, Carpenter was the only qualifier in 2014 to swing at pitches inside the strike zone less than half the time. That's right: Even when it's a strike, Carpenter won't offer unless it's his kind of strike...Little wonder, then, that only Mike Trout has seen more total pitches this season and that Carpenter easily tops the majors in pitches/plate appearance.

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Patient, pesky, opportunistic and shockingly powerful. That describes Carpenter as well as the Cardinals' newfound offensive attack. 

Just how memorable it'll be remains to be seen.

All statistics courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com unless otherwise noted.