When Matt Carpenter returned from the Yankees’ injured list last autumn, returning for the playoffs following a left foot injury, it appeared as though he wasn’t himself. This was because he was still suffering, the player revealed.
Carpenter, who made his first appearance in the Bronx wearing a Padres uniform on Friday, disclosed that his foot wasn’t fully recovered until last December, a long time after the slugger’s valiant but unsuccessful return to the Yankees’ lineup.
“I probably pushed it more than I should have to come back and play in October and it kind of cost me the rest of my offseason,” Carpenter said before Friday’s 5-1 win over the Yankees. “My foot just never healed. It was broken all the way until basically the day I signed [with San Diego].”
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“I think about it, but I try not to harp too much on it, because it’s just something you can’t control,” he said. “It was certainly a bummer.”
Carpenter’s spectacular summer in pinstripes came to a sudden and agonizing end on August 8 when he shattered his foot on a foul ball in Seattle. The 37-year-old made his first of six playoff appearances in Game 2 of the American League Division Series against the Guardians at Yankee Stadium just over two months later.
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Carpenter hit.305 with 15 home runs in 47 games during the regular season, which allowed him to resurrect his career, but his performance didn’t carry over to the postseason. In the postseason, Carpenter went 0-for-12 with nine strikeouts. As the Yankees were swept by the Astros in the American League Championship Series, he struck out seven times in four games.
“I wasn’t healthy, didn’t really have the at-bats under me, the timing wasn’t there and I just wasn’t able to do what I knew I wanted to or was capable of doing,” Carpenter said. “I just had to try to make the most of it, battle and we ran into a really good Houston team that obviously won the whole thing. They were a tough team to beat. Obviously we would have loved to finish that one off, but it is what it is.”
