Back when Chris Carpenter had one more rib in his chest than he does today

Good news is always preferable to bad, right, even when it’s just cautiously optimistic good news?

And with all the bad news for the St. Louis Cardinals these days — take your pick from last night’s 10-0 loss, Rafael Furcal being out for the season, falling a season high 9 1/2 games behind the Reds and on and on — it’s nice to have something encouraging to talk about.

Which is that Chris Carpenter, the man who had a rib removed during thoracic outlet surgery about six weeks ago, was facing hitters yesterday instead of just throwing a bullpen session.

Because, why not?

“Like I’ve said all along, I’m not just going to sit around and waste a month and just throw bullpen [sessions],” Carpenter said. “If I have a shot [at pitching this year], why not push it? Today was that step, and I felt good.

“It’s still my second session, and we need to continue to take it like that. If I wake up tomorrow and I feel good, I’ll be excited and we’ll do [this again] at some point in time at the beginning of the week.”

So let’s all hope this morning he wakes up feeling terrific. Because who wouldn’t want the chance to see Chris Carpenter back on the pitcher’s mound in a real game before the end of the season?

If things keep going the way they have this week, we might just need all the positive developments we can find to get us through the last month of the season.

Today the Cardinals are on FOX Saturday Baseball for the third straight week, with Kyle Lohse facing Jordan Zimmerman at 3:05 p.m. Central Time. Let’s hope they can turn things around. Scoring an earned run, or even two, would be a start.


Christine Coleman is the senior St. Louis Cardinals reporter for Aaron Miles’ Fastball. Follow her on Twitter, @CColeman802, or email aaronmilesfastball@gmail.com. Also follow @AMilesFastball for the latest updates.