Chris Carpenter was flattened by the Atlanta Braves on Sunday. The disappointing outing was not only his worst statistical start of the season, but it put his chances of winning a second Cy Young award in serious jeopardy.

With Tim Lincecum on the shelf for an undetermined amount of time with back spasms, Carpenter looked like the clear frontrunner for the prestigious pitching award. But Sunday ushered in a two-pronged attack on the likelihood of him taking home the hardware for the second time in four seasons. Carp surrendered seven earned runs on nine hits and a pair of walks over six innings, en route to his fourth loss of the season and a series sweep at the hands of the Braves. Shortly following his deflating outing it was announced that Lincecum would make his next scheduled start, taking the hill against the Rockies on Monday.

Coming into Sunday’s game the big Cardinal right-hander led the world in earned run average with a sparkling 2.16 mark. But by the time six frustrating innings had passed, he found himself in second place, sitting at 2.45. Eleven points behind Lincecum for the league lead. The outing also saw Carp’s WHIP (walks and hits per innings pitched) balloon to 1.00 on the season, marking the first time it had reached triple digits all this year. He still has the advantage on Lincecum in that category, but it’s now dangerously close as the two are separated by two one-hundredths of a point.

Carpenter still holds the lead in wins, winning percentage, walks allowed and WHIP, but the Giants ace and last year’s recipient of the award has the edge in ERA, innings pitched, complete games, shutouts and strikeouts. Carp was facing an uphill battle even coming into Sunday’s start due to the media bias and deference paid to Lincecum, but he now has to scale a mountain, which seems insurmountable. It also doesn’t help that he and teammate Adam Wainwright are considerably closer with their respective numbers than they were prior to Carp’s last start, and will ultimately lose out on votes to each other. If any writers are torn and can’t decide between the two Cardinal co-aces, they’ll likely just take the easy way out and vote for the diminutive Giant with the herky-jerky delivery.

Does Carpenter deserve to win the Cy Young this season? On many levels, yes he does. And before Sunday’s hiccup most people around the country would have been in the same camp as Cardinal Nation. But what matters even more than the trophy and the right to call Carpenter tops among his peers, is how he bounces back his next time out. The Cardinals are destined to play ball into October, but if Carp isn’t himself they have no chance competing against the game’s elite. Carpenter is as vital to a Cardinal World Championship in 2009 as Albert Pujols or anyone else on the team, so hopefully Sunday’s outing was indeed a hiccup and not a meltdown. Because at this point in the season, the Redbirds simply couldn’t afford it. And then all those prospects and potential future stars the organization traded away to get Matt Holliday and Mark DeRosa would have been for nothing. A win now attitude is admirable, but is just a poor decision if you don’t eventually win.

So hopefully Carp will get back on his horse and take care of business in his final few starts and the team can focus on playing deep into October and let the voters worry about awards after it’s all said and done. Cardinal Nation would breathe a lot easier if that were the case.