NEW YORK - Chris Carpenter was ready to call it quits.

Toiling in Double-A two years ago, trying to work his way back from shoulder surgery, he pitched a game in Tennessee just before the All-Star break and couldn’t even play catch afterward because his right arm hurt so much.

Carpenter knew something was wrong again, even though the doctors didn’t think so. He hadn’t seen his infant son in about a month, and all he wanted to do was go home to New Hampshire with his wife, Alyson.

“I’ll never forget the night we sat here until about 3 o’clock in the morning crying and talking about my career,” Carpenter said. “I was ready to be done. And she didn’t think I was, that I would regret it if I didn’t take that one more step and try to come back again. And the next thing you know, I got my second surgery and here we are today. And I know that if it wasn’t for her I wouldn’t be here.”

All that hard work and patience was rewarded when Carpenter won the NL Cy Young Award on Thursday.

After going 21-5 with a 2.83 ERA for the St. Louis Cardinals, he received 19 of 32 first-place votes and finished with 132 points in balloting by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.

He beat out Florida lefty Dontrelle Willis, becoming the first Cardinals pitcher to claim the honor since Hall of Famer Bob Gibson in 1970.

“I can’t believe I won,” Carpenter said. “My son did a little dance for me and my wife gave me a big hug. We were really excited about it.”

Willis, who was 22-10 with a 2.63 ERA, was listed first on 11 ballots, second on 18 and third on three for 112 points. Seven-time winner Roger Clemens got the other two first-place votes and came in a distant third at age 43.

The Rocket led the majors with a 1.87 ERA, but a lack of run support from his NL champion Houston Astros limited Clemens to a 13-8 record, which surely cost him votes.

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Balloting for all BBWAA awards is conducted at the end of the regular season and excludes the playoffs, when Carpenter went 2-0 with a 2.14 ERA in three starts. St. Louis was eliminated by the Astros in the NL championship series.

Carpenter began his career with Toronto on a late 1990s staff that eventually included three other Cy Young Award winners: Clemens, Roy Halladay and Pat Hentgen.

After compiling a 49-50 record in his first six seasons, Carpenter had surgery in September 2002 to repair a tear in his pitching shoulder, and the Blue Jays wanted to send him back to the minors. He refused the assignment and chose to become a free agent before signing with St. Louis.

Carpenter missed the 2003 season while rehabilitating his shoulder, and was forced to have another operation in July to remove scar tissue.

The Cardinals were determined to remain patient. Yet at that point, who knew if they would ever get much from him?

“I really felt that there was more in there,” Carpenter said. “When I came back last year, I knew I wasn’t going to take anything for granted. ... Mentally, I grew up a lot.”