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Cardinals' Matt Carpenter pledges $10K to Houston relief for each homer

As people across the country look for ways to help Houston rebuild itself after being decimated by Hurricane Harvey, one MLB star is putting his money where his bat is.

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St. Louis Cardinals infielder Matt Carpenter — who was born in Galveston, Texas, and spent his youth in La Marque and Missouri City, both of which are near Houston — has pledged to donate $10,000 for every home run he hits the rest of the season to help the damage in Houston.

Upon hearing what Carpenter was doing, teammate Adam Wainwright — who is from Georgia — said he’d match each $10,000 donation.

Matt Carpenter is giving $10,000 for every homer to relief efforts in Houston. (AP)
Matt Carpenter is giving $10,000 for every homer to relief efforts in Houston. (AP)

Carpenter, 31, has hit 17 homers this season, including one on Sunday. If he keeps that pace, a little bit of math tells us he could hit six or seven more homers this season. Last year, Carpenter hit 21 homers. In 2015, he hit a career-high 28 homers.

He’d need to get hot to reach that total, but hey, he’s got some extra motivation now. And that would certainly help the Cardinals, who are six games out of the second Wild Card spot in the National League.

Elsewhere: MLB and the MLB players’ union has announced a $1 million donation to help Houston as well. That came when the league announced it was moving the first three Houston Astros games this week to Tropicana Field, home of the Tampa Bay Rays. They’ll play Tuesday-Thursday against the Texas Rangers. The Astros could stay at Tropicana Field the rest of the week to play their series with the Mets if things in Houston don’t clear up.

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Mike Oz is the editor of Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at mikeozstew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!