SAN FRANCISCO — A day before he took the mound in Game 2 of the NLCS, right-hander Chris Carpenter was asked if he believed in the baseball saying, "Momentum is only as good as the next day's starting pitcher." That's probably malarkey, the 37-year-old Carpenter said. "We were going into Game 5 against Washington (in the NLDS) with our stud, Adam Wainwright, out there and nobody expected him to give up six runs in (2 1/3) innings," Carpenter said. "And we still won that game, so I'm not sure. There's no question that (starting pitching) might set the tone a little bit. But at this time of the year, everything matters. It doesn't matter who's starting; you need breaks, you need a little bit of luck and you need to go out and do things the right way. So, I don't buy into that, I don't think." If he's right, then the St. Louis Cardinals can consider Carpenter's wisdom as they prepare for Game 3 on Wednesday — because Carpenter gave a poor performance in a 7-1 loss to the San Francisco Giants, who evened the best-of-seven series at 1-1. Carpenter had pitched better in four starts, including one in the first round of the playoffs, since coming back from major surgery to...