"A couple days after throwing 132 pitches in his win last week at Baltimore, Cardinals ace Chris Carpenter cut short a question about how, in previous seasons, he would have to alter his between-start work to recover from so many pitches.

It wasn't a concern. He would never have thrown that many pitches.

"I don't think I could. Not effectively," Carpenter explained. "It used to take days for the soreness and aches and pains to go away. I don't have those issues (now). Knock on wood. I threw 130 pitches the other day and I woke up with minimal soreness. The last few years before this it was, 'Holy crap, am I going to make it to the next one?'"

Carpenter has thrown at least 124 pitches in three consecutive starts, more than he had thrown in any of his previous 170 starts with the Cardinals. He had not thrown as many as 120 pitches in any start since 2006, and only four times previously had he pitched 120 in a single game since the start of 2004. Yet the righthander, who will start Monday against Cincinnati, insists his shoulder has never felt this strong.

He credits a new approach to his conditioning, one created by a community effort from team trainers, physicians and consultants and adopted about a year ago.

In his second start of 2010, Carpenter allowed seven runs in Milwaukee, saw his velocity dip to 88 mph and had numbness in his right hand. Carpenter had missed a season recovering from shoulder surgery, and he missed time with nerve issues in his right shoulder as well. This start was an alarm.

"Every since I had surgery on my shoulder it's been a constant battle in the offseason and during the season to keep it strong," Carpenter said. "It would get strong. But then it would peter again. Up and down. It was just this constant headache. I had surgery. So I figured that just came along with it.""