Cool hand

ST. LOUIS – As best as 46,513 at Busch Stadium could tell – not to mention all the high-definition cameras Fox can buy – Chris Carpenter threw eight innings of scoreless, three-hit baseball Tuesday without the use of pine tar, dirt clumps or even jalapeno in the nose.

Yeah, he didn't even seem to put snot on the ball.

All in all, it was a rather remarkable – and remarkably honest – performance that powered the St. Louis Cardinals to a 5-0 victory and a 2-1 World Series lead over the Detroit Tigers. Game 4 was rained out Wednesday.

Carpenter is a downright dull individual, but he is also dominant. Both qualities were not only on display but also desperately needed.

As St. Louis talk radio cackled with another day of fans bewildered (and occasionally angry) at manager Tony La Russa for not pushing the issue with Dirt Patch Kenny Rogers the other night, in a game the Cards and their always shaky chemistry truly needed, Carpenter provided as much excitement as the view from the famed arch. ("Hey, look, another farm over there, too.")

This was St. Louis' ace grabbing this World Series by the shorthairs and spinning the momentum and the storylines completely around. Now it is the Tigers who are wondering about their hitting. Now it is the Cardinals who are again in command.

That's what aces do. And this is why Carpenter is one of the best in the business. He threw just 82 pitches, 55 for strikes.

"Our club comes to the park on the day he pitches and everybody has a real positive expectation," La Russa said. "So that's a heck of a burden for the No. 1 guy. When he carries it like he does, everybody feeds off of it.

"[A] true No. 1 deserves a ton of credit because he has a lot to live up to."

Carpenter excels in big moments because he is so good at forgetting that it is a big moment. He didn't care about the state of the series. He was unmoved by the circus surrounding Rogers and, more locally, La Russa.

He had forgotten about his up-and-down efforts in the National League Championship Series.

"My job is one pitch at a time," Carpenter said. "All night I was literally focused on one pitch at a time."

"He's so strong between the ears that nothing fazes him," La Russa said.

Carpenter is fun to watch because of his brilliance. He hit the corners all night and, by his estimation, missed over the plate just three or four times. But that's about all that is thrilling about him. The 6-foot-6 New Hampshire native is a robot on the mound, standing tall and mowing down Tiger after Tiger.

There is no fist-pumping, no theatrics, no passion or showmanship when he is on like this. He isn't even any good at explaining it, at making it at least seem colorful.

"If you go out and execute pitches, you'll have success," he said.

How riveting.

"I'm sorry I can't give you better than that," he laughed, as dry as a drought.

Carpenter should apologize for nothing because this was a monster performance at the most important of moments.

The Cardinals got back to their hyped-up new ballpark in St. Louis, where an antsy fan base spent the day debating whether La Russa was correct in valuing his old school baseball code of conduct over winning at all costs.

While the national focus has been on whether Rogers cheated or not, the talk in this town centered on La Russa's decision to not have the umpires inspect Rogers for pine tar (and possibly have him tossed for the Series). La Russa said he passed on an inspection because he thought it would be a "BS" way of winning.

But Cardinals fans just want to win and a little BS is palatable to some of them.

Especially after the gamble against the Gambler backfired when he shut out St. Louis through eight innings and drove the Tigers to a series-evening victory. Suddenly La Russa's loyalties – and state of mind – were being called into question.

Considering this is a team that is always one spark away from a catastrophic collapse, that could have been a problem. The Cards had three separate losing streaks of seven or more games during the regular season, La Russa and Scott Rolen still aren't on speaking terms and there have certainly been tighter clubhouses in baseball.

St. Louis needed calm. And then the calmest guy in town came through.

"We sat down before the game and came up with a good game plan," Carpenter said. "The key was going out and executing."

So there wasn't much to talk about. But it was a sight to see, the day dull delivered for the Cards.

Dan Wetzel is Yahoo! Sports' national columnist. Click here to follow him on Twitter. Send Dan a question or comment for potential use in a future column or webcast.

Updated on Wednesday, Oct 25, 2006 2:23 am, EDT

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