"Back in March, if someone told you Chris Carpenter would finish 2011 with a 15-9 record, you would have believed it, give or take a decision or two. You would never have believed how he got there.

Carpenter has had a number of ups and downs in his career, seasons in which he has won more than 20 games and a Cy Young Award (2005), seasons in which he has led the league in earned-run average (2009) and seasons in which he hasn't pitched at all (2003).

This season, he rolled the best of times and worst of times into one package. He was the good, the bad and sometimes even the ugly for the first 3½ months. Carpenter struggled to find his stuff.

After giving up 10 hits and five runs in eight innings against Kansas City on June 17, the 6-foot-6 horse of a righthander was 1-7 and staring down the barrel of double-figure losses. He didn't get mad, he got even, and then some.

"I came in physically ready, felt good. I was excited about the season," Carpenter, 36, said. "I didn't start very well. But I could easily have given up, and I didn't. I continued to battle. I continued to go out and try to get better each time, and it turned around.

"I said all along, I never evaluate my season by numbers, by results during the season. When the season is over, I'll sit down for a little bit with my family, drink a few beers, watch some football and go back and re-evaluate what went on — why did I start slow, what were some of the things I could have done better ... what made me better at the end of the season?"