13 Matt Carpenter, 2B

Hours after his manager called him the best second baseman in baseball, Matt Carpenter got two more hits for the Cardinals in a 2-1 win over the Mets Thursday.

Carpenter had a triple and a single with an RBI. He's raised his average to .327.

Cardinals manager Mike Matheny called Matt Carpenter the best second baseman in baseball Thursday, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. 

Matheny called Carpenter a "difference-maker" before saying, "he's established himself as the best second baseman in the league." He also gave extra credit to Carpenter for switching positions. Carpenter is hitting .324/.410/.470. 

With another two hits and a homer Thursday, the Cardinals' Matt Carpenter now ranks second among all second basemen in standard Head-to-Head leagues, ahead of consensus first-rounder Robinson Cano. He's batting .446 with a 1.160 OPS during a 15-game hitting streak and .335 with a .908 OPS overall.

If you're the beneficiary in your league, I know what you're thinking: He can't be this good, can he? You may put on a brave face and drop a few I-told-you-sos on the message board, but deep down, you're wondering if now is the time to deal him.

I'd stay the course. True, a .330 batting average is an unreasonable expectation for a player who's never done it before, and no, I don't expect Carpenter to finish the year ahead of Cano. But nothing he's doing is out of character for him. He's not coming off an unprecedented power surge. He doesn't have a disproportionate number of walks or an unrealistic number of stolen bases. He's just taking his pitches, making consistent contact and driving the ball into the gaps. It's what he does.

Whenever you catch a player at the tail end of a hot streak, you can expect his numbers to regress, but Carpenter's won't regress enough that you'll regret holding on to him.

Cardinals infielder Matt Carpenter extended his hitting streak to 14 games Wednesday against the Diamondbacks, going 4 for 5.

He had the team's lone extra-base hit, a double off starter Wade Miley, and raised his batting average to .333 in a 10-3 loss.

Carpenter is hitting .450 during his hitting streak, with five strikeouts in 60 at-bats. He has seven extra-base hits and 14 runs scored during the streak. 

Cardinals infielder Matt Carpenter pushed his hitting streak to 13 games Tuesday against the Diamondbacks with a 2-for-4 performance. Carpenter is batting .418 (23 for 55) with one home run, one triple, four doubles, five RBI, six walks and 14 runs during the streak.

Since May 1, Carpenter has a slash line of .369/.462/.492/.953 in his last 30 games. Most of his success has come out of the leadoff spot, where Carpenter is batting .340 with a .435 on-base percentage in 36 games.

"Just given the way that I take an at-bat and, you know, get on base, I thought that there would be a possibility that I could be a good leadoff hitter, but I just never really fit the mold," Carpenter said, per MLB.com. "Never really got that opportunity. I've enjoyed it. I want to get on there for these guys and keep our offense rolling."