Carpenter's rehab delayed by hand numbness

ST. LOUIS -- Chris Carpenter has hit yet another bump on his road to recovery.

The veteran right-hander has temporarily stalled his rehab program after experiencing some numbness and weakness in his right hand throughout his last rehab start Saturday with Triple-A Memphis. 

"I'm going to take a little bit of time," Carpenter said. "After that last one [Saturday], it just wasn't what we were looking for. I wasn't happy with the way that I recovered, and neither was the medical staff. We're going to take a step back again, and I said all along we're going to be very patient with what's going on and see what the next step is." 

Carpenter said he came in on the Cardinals off-day Monday to discuss the issue with general manager John Mozeliak, manager Mike Matheny and pitching coach Derek Lilliquist, determining that the best plan of action was to back off for the time being. Carpenter said he planned to meet with doctors and team trainers Tuesday evening to decide the next step in his rehab program. 

"We want to make sure everything stays together, everything stays strong before we get too far ahead of ourselves," Carpenter said. 

Carpenter tossed 74 pitches in the start Saturday, giving up four earned runs on nine hits and two walks with a pair of strikeouts in 3 1/3 innings. He threw 54 pitches on July 15, allowing six hits and three runs with five strikeouts in 2 2/3 innings. 

He suffered another setback last month, experiencing some lower back tightness, but this latest issue is related to the thoracic outlet syndrome that sidelined him in the first place. Yet the 38-year-old righty remained optimistic that his comeback hopes haven't been derailed by this latest obstacle, noting that both his velocity and strength are coming along well. 

"I'm not giving up," Carpenter said. "I feel like it's there, there's something there, because I had it in Springfield for a little bit. It's just a question on how can we get it to stay."