13 Matt Carpenter 2B

Carpenter went 1-for-3 with a key RBI as the Cardinals kept their playoff hopes alive in a 2-1 victory over the Cubs on Saturday.

Carpenter scored in the fourth inning and pushed the Cardinals in front with a sixth-inning single off Cole Hamels. The 32-year-old has been struggling in September with a .169 average and just one home run. Nevertheless, Carpenter holds a .258/.376/.524 line on the season and has hit a career-high 36 home runs.

Carpenter went 1-for-5 with a two-run home run in a win over the Giants on Sunday.

Carpenter put a bow on the scoring for the Cardinals with an impressive 425-foot shot right in the eighth, surprisingly his first homer of September. Carpenter has reached safely in six straight games, but he's slumped badly at the plate during the month to the tune of a .178/.315/.247 line across 89 plate appearances. While a .255 BABIP during that stretch could be partly to blame, a bigger culprit is the eight-point-plus bump in strikeout rate (20.8 percent to 29.2 percent) that Carpenter has seen compared to August.

Carpenter is out of the lineup Wednesday against the Braves.

With the two teams playing a day game after a night game in the series finale, Carpenter will pick up some rest, affording Matt Adams a turn at first base. After closing out August with his 35th home run of the season, Carpenter has endured a power outage thus far in September. He's failed to go deep in the Cardinals' 17 games on the month, contributing only two extra-base hits in total while batting just .169.

Carpenter is not in the lineup against the Dodgers on Saturday.

Carpenter will take a seat for the first time since Aug. 29, when he was battling a minor illness. Though Carpenter did go 0-for-4 with three strikeouts Friday, it's a little surprising manager Mike Shildt would keep him out of the starting nine during such a pivotal showdown with Los Angeles as both teams fight for postseason contention. That said, there hasn't been any word on a potential injury and with another left-hander in Rich Hill on the mound Saturday, it's entirely possible Shildt is just giving the 32-year-old a well-earned day off. Patrick Wisdom will man first base and bat sixth in the order in his absence.

Carpenter went 2-for-5 with two runs in a loss to the Dodgers on Thursday.

Carpenter continues to get on base at an elite clip, with Thursday's two-hit effort pushing his on-base percentage for September to .375. The veteran is slated to move back to first base on an everyday basis with the return of Jedd Gyorko (groin) from the disabled list and sports a .270/.386/.553 line on the season that's partly comprised of a career best in home runs (35).