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Carpenter, who laced a two-run single, walked and scored in two plate appearances during Thursday's 8-2 Grapefruit League win over the Braves, adjusted his swing this offseason in an attempt to revert back to his prior level of efficiency, Joe Trezza of MLB.com reports. "I'm not going to let myself hit .240 again," Carpenter said. "I look at my season as a huge disappointment. I wasn't happy about the kind of year I had at all."

A commitment to putting the ball in the air more often beginning in 2015 led to a progressive increase in Carpenter's launch angle, which was up to an average of 21 degrees during a 2017 campaign in which his average dipped to its lowest figure (.241) since his initial seven-game cup of coffee with the Cards in 2011. That number put him in the same class as sluggers like Mike Napoli and Joey Gallo, hitters whose style in the batter's box is the antithesis of what Carpenter's has been for the majority of his career. In all, Carpenter sacrificed a total of 77 points in his batting average from the career-high .318 he hit in 2013 with his revamped approach, and his offseason tweaks were done with the intention of returning to the potent all-fields hitter he used to be. The usual caveat about spring numbers aside, Carpenter's .500 average over 19 plate appearances serves as a cautiously optimistic endorsement of his old-is-new-again swing as the regular season approaches.

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