Early on without Lance Berkman, that really stretched their lineup, and then after Berkman got back in the lineup and Morgan got hot ... I think they are very much like last year,

That was vintage Carpenter. He had first and second, the middle of the lineup, and he gets out of it. That's what he does.

That's how he pitched early in the year. He just got in a funk. In the middle of that funk, he had a couple of games like this and we couldn't score for him. ... This is what he's capable of doing.

I had started law school at Florida State University as a part-timer. I would go two quarters, and they allowed me to drop out to play baseball, and then I'd get readmitted in September. I was convinced I was going to be a lawyer and was using my baseball salary to pay my way through school.

I've paid him a lot of compliments. He earned a lot of respect, with a lot of tough situations. There were injuries, they were forced to sell or trade guys like [Aramis] Ramirez. I thought he did a good job of keeping the club competitive every time we saw them.

I don't necessarily think you can separate the two, ... When you come into a game with a big lead, absolutely the worst thing you can do is to walk guys. That's the only time I'd yell from the dugout - whey they walked somebody. So when you get behind a hitter in that situation, it's more likely a ball catches too much plate.