Cardinals ace pitcher Chris Carpenter flew back to St. Louis yesterday to have his neck looked at again after symptoms from a bulging disc in his neck resurfaced. Carpenter threw a live batting practice on Sunday and completed normal throwing on Monday. He was scheduled to throw batting practice again today, but now all plans are off.
AUDIO Mike Matheny comments on Carpenter (5:00)
The clubs was holding out hope that Carpenter could still make his Opening Day start against the Miami Marlins on April 4. Based on the spring rotation, it looks like Kyle Lohse will get the call now against the Marlins. Lance Lynn made his second spring start and will take Carpenter’s spot in the rotation. Lynn figured to be a setup guy for Jason Motte.
Sincer Carpenter will turn 37 in April and he is coming off a season in which he threw a league high 237 innings, the plan was to limit the number of Grapefruit League starts that Carpenter made this season, yet he hasn’t made one spring training appearance after disc problems first started surfacing more than two and a half weeks ago.
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