When things get ugly for a baseball team — and last night’s bottom of the ninth inning certainly qualifies as ugly for the Cardinals, following several days of ugly losses — someone needs to step up and do something about it.

So thank you, Matt Carpenter, first for this (from Rick Hummel in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch):

Matt Carpenter simply wouldn’t let the staggering Cardinals lose yet again. And he wasn’t bashful about letting his feelings be known Wednesday night.

After the Kansas City Royals spoiled a potential shutout by Adam Wainwright with the aid of a strike three that got away in the ninth inning to help them tie the score 2-2, Carpenter, according to manager Mike Matheny, “came into the dugout screaming, ‘We’re not giving this away. This is our game. It’s not going to end like this.’

And then, in the top of the 11th, for this (also from Hummel’s game story):

Photo: Kansas City Star

Carpenter became the first Cardinal since Ryan Ludwick on Sept. 4, 2009 to get five hits in a game when he doubled off reliever Kelvin Herrera with one out in the 11th inning. It scored Peter Bourjos, who had walked and stolen second base and propelled the Cardinals a 5-2 victory, just their third in their last 10 games.

Words. Action. Success.

Victory.

Tonight is the finale of the home-and-away series against the Royals, as the Cards try to make the visiting team the winner in all four games. Michael Wacha starts for the Cardinals, just after the one-year anniversary of his major league debut against the Royals and just after the two-year anniversary of being the Cards top draft pick, facing Yordano Ventura, the hard-throwing rookie whose left his most recent start because of elbow soreness and then skipped a turn in the rotation. Game time is 7:10 p.m. Central.