Chris Carter smacked a solo home run in Wednesday's loss to the A's. It was his only hit in five at-bats. Carter has homered in three of his last five games. Owners are forced to stomach Carter's .213 batting average in order to enjoy his 22 round-trippers, a transaction that only makes sense in AL-only leagues. The 6-foot-4, 245 pounder is on pace to finish with 30 home runs.

Chris Carter pounded out a solo home run in Sunday's loss to the Rangers. Houston's offense did nothing against Martin Perez through 8 2/3 innings before Carter connected with his blast over the left field wall. The 6-foot-4, 245 pounder has smacked solo homers in consecutive games. Carter's .213 batting average is atrocious, and he's struck out an amazing 153 times in 357 at-bats, but AL-only owners certainly appreciate the 21 homers and 54 RBI he's contributed to this point.

Chris Carter was held out of the lineup for the second consecutive game Wednesday as he attempts to work through his slump. Carter has gone 10-for-74 (.135) since July 4. "He's worked extremely hard in the cage, watching video with [hitting coach] John Mallee, and it was more like kind of take a break and take a step back and really evaluate things in which he was doing and also look at some of the things he wasn't doing well and why he was in the funk he's in," Porter said. "With the off-day, it almost gives him three days off and he'll be back in there on Friday."

Chris Carter went 0-for-3 with a walk on Thursday and is batting .184 in 49 at-bats for the month. Carter does have three homers and 10 walks in 49 at-bats, so it's a pretty good .184, if that's any consolation. Really, though, he needs to up his season average from its current .221 to ensure that he's kept in Houston's 2014 plans.

Chris Carter is not in the Astros' lineup Sunday. Carter insists that his bruised right hand is fine, but he's now sat out the last two games. He should be available off the bench and be back in the lineup after the All-Star break.

Chris Carter (hand) launched his 18th home run of the season Wednesday in his return to action. Carter had missed three straight games with a bruised hand. He is batting just .229 with a .327 on-base percentage in 86 games this season, but the big man's random bursts of power have given him ample fantasy value.

Chris Carter was in the Astros' lineup Tuesday due to a minor right hand injury. It's the third straight start Carter has missed. The slugger was injured when he was hit by a thrown ball Friday as he slid into second base. He took a full round of batting practice Tuesday and should be back in the lineup soon. "I shook his hand. He said, 'It's OK for me to shake your hand, but if you squeeze, it hurts,'" manager Bo Porter said. "He didn't really feel too many ill effects, but I think it's good for him to go through a full batting practice today."

Chris Carter slugged two home runs Wednesday in the Astros' 4-1 defeat of the Rays. Carter launched a solo shot in the bottom of the second inning and a three-run shot in the bottom of the seventh. The big man has a weak .321 batting average and .322 on-base percentage, but he is generating enough power to hold value in standard fantasy leagues.

Chris Carter went 2-for-4 with a solo home run Friday in a loss to the Cubs. Carter accounted for half of the Astros' hits on the day. He now has five homers this month and 15 for the season. While he continues to strike out at a ridiculously high rate, the power plays in deeper mixed formats.

Chris Carter delivered a go-ahead, two-run double in the top of the ninth as the Astros beat the Mariners 6-1 on Wednesday. The Astros were down 1-0 tonight and had scored two runs in 26 innings in the series before finally exploding for six runs in the ninth tonight. Carter's double, which followed an intentional walk to Carlos Pena, started the scoring. He had been 0-for-12 since his last hit on June 8. He still hasn't had a multihit game since way back on May 18.