HOUSTON — Chris Carter doesn't want to talk about his difficult summer. That doesn't matter now.
It was easy to see that something was wrong. Always reserved, the Astros slugger retreated even more as he struggled at the plate. A radiant smile that comes naturally almost disappeared.
Relegated to a pinch-hitting role after being benched in early August, Houston's regular first baseman had a choice to make:
Wallow in the setback or do whatever he could to turn things around.
"It's hard going from an everyday player to playing every other game, to playing every few games to maybe playing once a week or getting a pinch-hit at-bat," he told The Associated Press.