TOWER GROVE — And you thought Chris Carpenter had a monstrous season debut for the St. Louis Cardinals on Thursday. Check the minors.

Down in Springfield, Mo., Brett Wallace made quite a first impression.

Carpenter took a no-hitter into the seventh inning and won his first regular-season game since he was backed by a three-run homer from Juan Encarnacion and out-pitched San Francisco’s Matt Morris in September 2006. The Cardinals’ returning — no longer rehabbing — ace allowed one hit to the 26 batters he faced and looked, as several Cardinals said, like the “Chris Carpenter of old.”

Brett Wallace just looked like Brett Wallace. Last summer’s first-round pick made his season debut for Class AA Springfield, and this was his hitting line:

5 AB, 4 H, 4 runs, 6 RBIs, 2 HR

Both of the third baseman’s home runs, according to reports from Springfield, were opposite field shots. Wallace and the S-Cards had 17 hits in their 16-4 victory against Frisco on Thursday. Wallace’s roommate Daniel Descalso also had four hits, allowing Wallace to tell Matt Baker, the S-Cards beat writer for the Springfield News-Leader: “We got eight hits in our house.”

But it was the absence of hits that made headlines yesterday, and remain the biggest story so far this season for the Cardinals. Carpenter’s start is a good place for the 10@10 to begin:

1. The one-hit allowed was the fewest by the Cardinals since Anthony Reyes’ start complete-game gem against the Chicago White Sox in 2006. Jim Thome had the one hit — and it was a home run that meant Reyes and the Cardinals lost, 1-0. Elias Sports Bureau discovered that Carpenter’s 10-1 record against the Pirates, .909 winning percentage and his 2.06 ERA in 12 career starts against Pittsburgh are the best in major-league history against the Bucs. The only other active pitcher with a winning percentage that hight and an ERA that low (min. 10 starts) is Randy Johnson and his 13-0 record with a 1.84 ERA against the Chicago Cubs.
2. Brian Barden had the game-winning hit Thursday — a pinch-hit RBI single. That came a few innings after Joe Thurston had a snazzy play in the field to keep Carpenter’s no-hitter going. Not only did we see all three (four?) of the Cardinals’ third basemen in the same game, the Cardinals used them all in the same inning. David Freese, the rookie, said he’s been mining info from the veterans about how to best prepare each day to be a pinch-hitter, a role he’s never really had. Clearly, playing the Hot Corner for the Cardinals this season is going to be a multi-tasking job — sometimes you start, sometimes you sit, but always you’ll be used. Begs the question on whether a starter at the position will emerge before Troy Glaus returns, or if the carousel keeps spinning.

   How should the Cardinals handle the Hot Corner?

   • Start Brian Barden.
   • Start David Freese.
   • Start Brendan Ryan.
   • Start Joe Thurston.
   • Why stop the music? Keep the carousel going.
   • Behold the healing power of Phoenix, where Troy Glaus will rise again, and soon.

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3. Mike Hampton returns to his roots tonight with his start for Houston against the Cardinals. Hampton has been derailed by injuries the past five seasons. Since 2005, he has missed two seasons entirely and pitched just 147 1/3 innings total. It’s a long way from when he made his Colorado Rockies debut in 2001, the big-ticket free-agent signing that the Rockies got despite the Cardinals attempts to woo the lefty. That day, April 2, 2001, Hampton hit a home run at Coors Field and pitched 8 1/3 shutout innings. And, oh yeah, Albert Pujols made his major-league debut.
4. Two of the 13 active players with at least 1,000 played with his current and only team will be on the field tonight at Busch Stadium, according to research done by the Cardinals media relations staff. Pujols’ 1,242 games with the Cardinals puts him 10th among active players. Lance Berkman has 1,374 games with the Astros. Chipper Jones (2,025) and Derek Jeter (1,987) lead the group.
5. In 2008, Cardinals starter Joel Pineiro had a pedestrian 7-7 record with one of the worst ERAs of any regular starter in the National League (at 5.15). Maybe being ejected from Team Puerto Rico for the World Baseball Classic was just the motivation he needed. The “chip on his shoulder to pitch with,” as manager Tony La Russa said. Or maybe he’s rediscovered the effective use of his two-seam fastball (his sinker). Either way, Pineiro, who will make his season debut tonight, went 3-0 with a 1.44 ERA in the Grapefruit League this spring. He struck out 19 in 25 innings.
6. What I hope becomes a staple of the 10@10: THE FARM REPORT. The Cardinals’ top four minor-league affiliates opened their seasons Thursday, and they went 3-1 overall. … Casey Rowlett had a bases-loaded walk in the 10th to give Triple-A Memphis a 4-3 victory. Chris Perez got the win in relief. Mitchell Boggs pitched six innings, allowing one run and five hits. Adam Ottavino will make his Trip-A debut tonight. … Mentioned Wallace already. For Springfield, Daryl Jones, the organization’s reigning player of the year, went 3-for-4 with a double, a walk and four runs scored. … At High-A Palm Beach, Mr. Maine Curt Smith went 3-for-4 with a home run and two RBIs in a 7-0 victory. Shane Peterson was 4-for-4 with three doubles, a triple, and two RBIs. Ryan Kulik, a lefty, struck out five in his two innings of work. … Low-A Quad Cities lost 2-1, with three errors in the game and one contributing to a blown save. Arquimedes Nieto pitched 2 2/3 innings and struck out three, but allowed the two unearned runs that cost the game. Adam Veres, the starter, pitched three scoreless innings.
7. Ryan Ludwick takes a 14-game hitting streak into tonight’s game against the Astros. Obviously that dates back to last season, but when it comes to the record books it still counts. The longest hitting streak in the National League overlapped two seasons. In 1896-1897, Willie Keeler had an NL record 45-game hitting streak. (Pete Rose has the most famous hitting streak, the one contained within an entire season.) The last player to have a 30-plus game hitting streak with an overlap of seasons was Philadelphia shortstop Jimmy Rollins, whose 38-game hitting streak bridged the 2005 and 2006 seasons.
8. During their season-opening home stand, the Houston Astros celebrated the 10 years of Minute Maid Park (nee Enron). That included an ovation for Jeff Kent, whose home run against the Cardinals in the 2004 NLCS is considered one of the most memorable homers in the building’s history. Perhaps the most memorable wasn’t hit by an Astro at all.
9. Shortstop Khalil Greene leads the Cardinals in at-bats with 17 through four games, and he has yet to have more than five at any spot in the order. La Russa plans to move him around a bit, and he’s a candidate to hit cleanup tonight. Greene’s career experience when it comes to the first eight spots in the order: 1. 118 AB (.263 avg/.551 slg). 2. 32 (.219/.313). 3. 16 (.188/.250). 4. 20 (.200/.300). 5. 574 (.223/.402). 6. 636 (.266/.489). 7. 527 (.233/.380). 8. 440 (.266/.407).
10. Few Cardinals crossed paths with Angels prospect Nick Adenhart, 22, who died Wednesday night in a car accident, but one was once a teammate: Skip Schumaker. Schumaker found out about Adenhart’s death while he was taking groundballs before Thursday’s games. One of the first people he talked to was outfielder Rick Ankiel. “I told him that Nick reminded me a lot of him; he was just like Ankiel when I knew him,” Schumaker said. “He had great stuff. He could throw that 95 with that curve, just like Ankiel. All kinds of talent. And it looks like he was just starting to figure it out. I can only think of his family and how it was all just starting to come together for him.”

Adenhart’s father spent some time yesterday with his son’s teammates in the Angels’ clubhouse, and the Los Angeles Times describes that visit and the talent lost too soon in this morning’s paper.

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