Chris Carpenter never wanted to leave St. Louis. The Cardinals never wanted to see the former Cy Young Award winner go.

Still, there were moments this season, as the months passed and his club option for 2012 loomed, when the veteran right-hander wondered if he was a part of the team’s future.

“As the year went on it was definitely a concern,” Carpenter said.

Not anymore.

Carpenter signed a $21 million, two-year contract with the Cardinals on Tuesday that will keep him around until at least 2013.

“We believe with him and Adam Wainwright we do have that 1-2 punch that we were so hopeful for this year and are glad it can be something we look forward to for 2012 and ’13,” general manager John Mozeliak said.

The 36-year-old Carpenter said he feels “great” as he nears the end of an uneven season for both himself and the team. He entered Tuesday night’s start against Pittsburgh at 9-9 with a 3.75 ERA as the Cardinals try to stay in the playoff picture.

St. Louis began the day 4½ games behind Atlanta in the wild-card race and 6½ games in back of Milwaukee in the NL Central.

“There’s all kinds of things that happened this year that kind of shuffled things around,” Carpenter said. “I like the way the team continued to play and continues to compete (but) we could never get on that roll.”

Time is running out to make something happen this year, though Carpenter remains optimistic about the future. Wainwright, who missed the entire season after undergoing Tommy John surgery, will be back next spring and Carpenter is doing his part to make sure the team has money to retain core players.

The new contract frees up some money next year, giving the team some wiggle room as it tries to re-sign first baseman Albert Pujols. Mozeliak said negotiations between the club and its superstar have not resumed but believes Carpenter’s signing is the first step in the process of keeping Pujols.

“Clearly getting Chris Carpenter done puts an exclamation point on our rotation for 2012 and we can start setting our sights on other objectives,” Mozeliak said.

Carpenter didn’t rule out playing beyond 2013 but stressed it’s important for him to remain with St. Louis. The three-time All-Star is 93-42 in his nine seasons with the club and is fourth on the team’s all-time strikeout list.

It’s heady company for a player who has struggled to stay off the disabled list since winning the 2005 NL Cy Young Award.

He missed most of the 2007 and 2008 seasons with a series of arm injuries. He had bone spurs removed from his pitching elbow in May 2007 and had reconstructive elbow surgery that July, sidelining him until July 2008. A nerve in his right elbow was transposed in December 2008.

Carpenter rebounded with a sterling 2009 in which he went 17-4 and posted an NL-leading 2.24 ERA. He went 16-9 last season but hasn’t been quite as sharp this summer, though he’s coming off an impressive four-hit shutout win over Milwaukee that manager Tony La Russa called one of the best performances he’s seen all season.

While allowing every season is different, Carpenter is confident he can be effective well into the future.

“I believe I can be better than I was this year, try and be more consistent,” he said. “If I’m healthy, I’m going to be fine.”

Carpenter is 142-92 with a 3.79 ERA in 14 seasons with the Toronto Blue Jays and the Cardinals.

Closer to the end of his career than the beginning, Carpenter is well aware of the company he’s keeping.

“The whole time I’ve been here, there have been a lot of referrals to ‘the last guy to do this is Bob Gibson,’ ” Carpenter said. “I’m not Bob Gibson but … (hopefully) when my career is over, people look back and say even though (I wasn’t) Bob Gibson, Chris Carpenter was a big part of this tradition.”

— Associated Press —

Yadier Molina and the St. Louis Cardinals are back in the playoff picture.

Molina had three hits, including a three-run double, and the Cardinals beat the slumping Atlanta Braves 6-3 on Sunday to complete a three-game series sweep.

The Cardinals pulled within 4½ games of NL wild card-leading Atlanta and remained six games back of Central-leading Milwaukee They have 16 games left and open a three-game set in Pittsburgh on Monday.

The Braves start a three-game series with the Marlins on Monday and have 15 games remaining.

“I feel like we are (in the race) if we keep winning,” St. Louis manager Tony La Russa said. “It’s exciting baseball. Guys have come through all over the roster. We got a shot.”

The Cardinals know they have left themselves no margin for error.

“It doesn’t mean anything if you go and you don’t have a good road trip,” first baseman Albert Pujols said. “We’re just going to continue playing and at the end of the road trip we’ll see where we are.”

Atlanta has dropped seven straight games at Busch Stadium and hasn’t won in St. Louis since Sept. 13, 2009. The Braves lost six of eight on their road trip.

“We did nothing right,” Braves star Chipper Jones said of the road stint.

Jake Westbrook (12-8) allowed two runs and five hits in 5 1/3 innings for the Cardinals. Jason Motte pitched a scoreless ninth for his fifth save in eight chances.

“It was a good win for us,” Westbrook said. “I would have liked to have gotten deeper in the game and saved our bullpen a little bit but that just wasn’t the case.”

St. Louis got to Tim Hudson (14-10) for five runs in the third, taking advantage of a lapse in control by the right-hander. Hudson plunked Daniel Descalso leading off the inning, and hit Jon Jay with another pitch with two down, leaving runners on the corners.

Pujols hit an RBI single before Hudson issued consecutive walks to Matt Holliday and Lance Berkman, forcing home a run. Molina then cleared the bases with a double to right, making it 5-0.

Hudson was charged with six runs and eight hits in six innings.

“I made my bed,” Hudson said. “I set them up for an inning and I just didn’t make good pitches. They had good at-bats and made me pay for it.”

Jones did hit a solo drive in the eighth for his 17th homer of the season and No. 453 for his career, moving him ahead of Carl Yastrzemski and into 33rd place. Freddie Freeman singled in a run for Atlanta, and pinch-hitter Matt Diaz had a sacrifice fly.

Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said his team needs to regroup a bit after playing eight road games in seven days.

“It feels like we’re close offensively,” Gonzalez said. “Let’s just go home, lick our wounds a little bit and go get them.”

— Associated Press —

Nick Punto’s alter ego is The Shredder, a maniac who rips dress shirts right off a teammates’ torso.

“It’s been known to happen on occasion,” the St. Louis Cardinals’ utilityman said. “I’ve actually shredded people’s dress shirts on airplane flights.”

Teammates returned the favor after Punto’s game-winning sacrifice fly with the bases loaded in the 10th inning beat the Atlanta Braves 4-3 on Friday night. During the ensuing celebration on the field, they tore off Punto’s jersey.

“I guess that was payback,” Punto said. “It’s a celebration of friendship, good friends.”

Albert Pujols’ two-run single with two outs in the ninth off Craig Kimbrel tied it for the Cardinals, who kept alive faint postseason hopes.

“Our season is not over,” Pujols said. “All we can do is go out there and give it our best and hopefully at the end we can look back and say we gave it our best this year.”

Pujols had three hits and his hit just inside the first-base line with two outs in the ninth ended Kimbrel’s streak of 25 consecutive saves. The Cardinals loaded the bases on a hit and two walks for Pujols, who is 4 for 10 with 11 RBIs with the bases loaded.

“Whenever you put guys on for free, it seems like it always comes back to get you,” Kimbrel said. “I hung a pitch there at the end and he kept it inside the line.

“I made a mistake and he made me pay for it.”

Pujols is batting .298 and has 87 RBIs with 18 games to go. He’s batted .300 with 100 RBIs each of his 11 seasons.

Matt Holliday and Lance Berkman singled off Scott Linebrink (4-3) to start the 10th and moved up on a sacrifice. Skip Schumaker was intentionally walked before Punto, with a full count, ended it with a line drive to center in his first plate appearance since coming off the 15-day disabled list from an oblique injury.

Punto has been limited to only 48 games and has been on the disabled list three times.

“It’s been a tough year for me, definitely,” Punto said. “To be able to put that ball in play, it was huge.”

Pujols said Punto was among a small group of teammates able to shred shirts. Punto absolved himself of financial obligation.

“The Shredder, he doesn’t pay guys back,” Punto said. “Nick would. I’m a good guy. The Shredder, not so much.”

Kimbrel leads the majors with 43 saves but he got his first blown save since June 14. He had worked 38 consecutive scoreless outings covering 37 2/3 innings, allowing 14 hits and 11 walks with 67 strikeouts.

Jason Motte (4-2) worked a perfect 10th for the Cardinals, who are 6½ games behind the Braves for the NL wild card and seven behind NL-Central leading Milwaukee.

Michael Bourn matched his career best with four hits and an RBI for the Braves, who also got RBI doubles from Brian McCann and Freddie Freeman in the first inning. Chipper Jones was robbed his first two trips by Berkman’s outstanding running catch at the track in right in the first inning and second baseman Skip Schumaker’s leaping grab of a liner in the third. Jones singled in the seventh.

Bourn’s RBI triple off Arthur Rhodes gave the Braves a 3-1 lead.

“That was great against a tough left-handed pitcher,” Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said. “Get a triple and get another run, so you feel good.

“But again, you can’t run out the clock. You’ve got to throw it over the plate and get the last out and we just didn’t do that today.”

Randall Delgado was the fourth straight rookie starter for Atlanta and gave up a run and three hits in five innings in his fourth career start. He followed Greg Beachy, Mike Minor and Julio Teheran in the rotation for the Braves, who are without Tommy Hanson (right shoulder tendinitis) and Jair Jurrjens (straight right knee).

Linebrink has allowed six runs in 5 2/3 innings since coming off the disabled list from a lower back strain on Aug 14.

Edwin Jackson shut down the Braves his last five innings, although Atlanta left the bases loaded in the fourth. Rafael Furcal had three walks and a hit, and he was thrown out at second to end the seventh after trying for the extra base on a single after pinch runner Tyler Greene drew a throw to third.

Holliday and Pujols grounded into double plays to boost the Cardinals’ major league-leading total to 154, 12 shy of matching their own NL record set in 1958. Pujols leads the majors with 28 and Holliday is second in the NL with 20, one more than teammate Yadier Molina.

— Associated Press —