Carpenter away from Cards for birth of child

ST. LOUIS — The Cardinals were without third baseman Matt Carpenter for Wednesday’s series finale against the Cubs and were preparing for the possibility that he’ll miss part of the team’s upcoming series in Washington because of the birth of his first child.

Carpenter’s wife, Mackenzie, went into labor early on Wednesday, prompting Carpenter to send a pre-dawn text message to manager Mike Matheny to let him know he would be spending the day at a St. Louis-area hospital. Carpenter had been slated to start against Cubs starter Jake Arrieta — a teammate of Carpenter’s at Texas Christian University and one of his wedding groomsmen — even though Arrieta has held him hitless in 16 regular-season at-bats.

With some uncertainty as to when …

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