The unofficial end of the 2009 Summer was capped Monday in an amazingly similar way to its start.
Cards ace Chris Carpenter threw arguably the staff’s best game of the year yesterday, one hitting the Brewers and bringing the Cards back to a season-high 25 games over .500. Earlier this season, on Memorial Day, the former Cy Young winner kicked off the Summer in the same ball park, against the same team and pitched a near-perfect game then too.
For the record, the Cards didn’t give Carp any run support on that Monday in May, losing 1-0 in 10 innings. The Cards bats provided just enough offense yesterday scoring three runs and securing Carpenter’s 16th win of the season.
A pair of starts that bookend the Cards Summer, in a way, signify the progress of this team along with its ace as they begin to head down the four week home stretch 
before returning to the postseason for the first time in three seasons.
While the Cards offense has been shaky at times this season and throughout the clubs enormous facelift involving four midseason acquisitions, Carpenter has proven time and time again that he is the leader of what has become the best three man rotation in baseball.
Monday was just another reminder that he is the one deserving of the ball in game one of the division series next month.
Was there ever any doubt that this was the case, you ask?
Well, after a brilliant season debut in the campaign’s fourth game, Carpenter, as you recall, left only his second start of the season midway through the fourth inning with an injury. Despite learning full-well that this new ailment had nothing to do with the right shoulder that had essentially wiped out two full seasons, we all held our breath in thinking this could be THE injury that sidelined him for good.
But a funny thing happened, the Cards medical staff correctly diagnosed the problem, included with it a reasonably achievable timeline for proper healing, and the ace returned as scheduled about five weeks later.
And shortly after rebounding from what at the time was another humbling home sweep dealt at the hands of these same Brewers, Carp returned to the mound that Memorial Day Monday and provided a catalyst to the rest of the season.
104 days later, Carp stands at 16-3. He leads the league in wins and winning percentage. He’s thrown less than six innings in only two starts since the injury and has not given up a long ball in a season-high six consecutive starts.
The team hasn’t been too bad either. Even better than its record of 14-6 in games that Carpenter has started since Memorial Day, the Cards have gone 56-38.
This same team that hovered around the six to eight games over .500 mark for roughly three months now stands even with the Dodgers for the best record in the league at 82-57.
Along with the acquiring of Matt Holliday, good old number 29 deserves plenty of recognition for the Cards complete takeover of the NL Central. The bird’s 
lightning-quick ascent to the top record in the league has included eight Carpenter wins against zero losses and two no decisions since July 27.
Teammate Adam Wainwright deserves plenty of praise as well, after all he has one more win than Carpenter. San Francisco ace Tim Lincecum is helping keep his team in the wild card race despite the Giants biggest offensive threat coming from someone or something called ‘Kung Fu Panda.’
However, 2009 shall be no different than 2005.
The Cards will eventually leapfrog LA, they’ll head into the October as the top seed in the NL and will be the favorite to represent the Senior Circuit in the World Series.
And despite piggybacking a pair of season-ending injuries that threatened his career with another stint on the disabled list this year, Chris Carpenter will once again win the Cy Young.
Maybe next year it’ll be Adam’s turn.