CHICAGO -- Matt Carpenter was stuck in the worst offensive funk of his career when, after a mid-May road trip, he returned home to find part of his backyard repurposed into a garden. It was a gift from teammate and avid gardener Adam Wainwright, who planted a variety of fruits and vegetables for Carpenter to cook and can.
It was with those ingredients that Carpenter started making homemade salsa, a culinary favorite of the corner infielder. He'd use it with chips, he'd put it on eggs, and, this week, for the first time, Carpenter took it on the road.
With that salsa as sustenance, he's having a series for the ages.
Carpenter elbowed his way further into the record books on Saturday with home runs in both ends of a doubleheader the Cardinals split with the Cubs at Wrigley Field. That extended Carpenter's home run streak to six consecutive games, tying a franchise record Mark McGwire once set. Carpenter, however, is the only Cardinal to achieve the feat in a single season.