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ST. LOUIS -- The St. Louis Cardinals will have to make do without All-Star second baseman Matt Carpenter for an extended period. Theyve struggled plenty even with Carpenter in the lineup.Carpenter was placed on the 15-day disabled list on Thursday with a strained right oblique, and theres no set timetable for his return.Manager Mike Matheny said he delivered the sermon that this isnt a rehab that can be rushed. He recalled having the same injury as a player and disregarding medical advice, setting him back longer. The Cardinals were 3-5 and trying to avoid a four-game sweep by the Pirates in the finale of a nine-game homestand.Carps going to have to be careful with this, Matheny said. Its going to take those two weeks at the very minimum.Greg Garcia batted leadoff in place of Carpenter on Thursday and Kolten Wong was at second base. Wong was the starting second baseman at the beginning of the season, but Carpenter moved from third base to second base when Jhonny Peralta returned from thumb surgery.Jedd Gyorko, expected to compete for playing time at second base and shortstop before the season started, also figures to get plenty of work.The Cardinals are set at shortstop with rookie Aledmys Diaz, who replaced Carpenter as St. Louis lone representative on the All-Star team. Diaz was batting .319 with 12 homers and 44 RBI.The Cardinals purchased the contract of catcher Michael McKenry from Triple-A Memphis. Matheny said the 31-year-old McKenry, who was batting .341 with five homers and 20 RBI, was the best bat available. McKenry had a game-winning homer against Nashville on Tuesday night and has played for Colorado and Pittsburgh.Carpenter, named Tuesday to his third NL All-Star team, is the third St. Louis player in three days to go on the DL, joining Brandon Moss (ankle) and Brayan Pena (knee).Carpenter was among the league leaders in on-base percentage (.420) and slugging percentage (.568). He was batting .298 with a team-leading 25 doubles and 53 RBI to go with 14 homers.Matheny said he told Carpenter to take advantage of rest while he can, and then plan on riding it hard the rest of the way after this and put on the kind of finish hes had here at the start.The manager hoped the rest of the team would see Carpenters injury as a chance to contribute. Diaz got his break when Tommy Pham injured his oblique on opening day, combined with a hamstring injury to Ruben Tejada, and was among the top rookies with a .319 average, 12 homers and 44 RBI.Have a Moss go down? Opportunity. Have a Carpenter go down? 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The Cairns Taipans have recovered from a final-quarter lapse to beat the New Zealand Breakers by 11 points in their NBL clash at the Cairns Convention Centre.Cairns will be relieved with the 91-80 win after they almost let a 15 point half-time lead evaporate in the fourth quarter.The Taipans entered the second half with their biggest half-time lead of the season but the Breakers hung around in the third quarter.New Zealands defence then went into another gear to start the final term as they hassled and smothered the Taipans at every turn.By the five-minute mark they had reeled the game back to within two points.But a brace of buckets from Cairns centre Nate Jawai and a breakaway Travis Trice layup from a stolen ball kept the home sides nose in front.A four-point play from Travis Trice with just a minute and a half left then looked to have put the Breakers to bed.But New Zealand, whove enjoyed a strong rivalry with Cairns in recent years, refused to go away.New import David Stockton picked up the crumbs of an offensive rebound to make a three from well beyond the line, but that was as close as the visitors could get.ddddddddddddPlaying in just his second home game, Snakes point guard Travis Trice proved he had well and truly put his recent hip injury behind him.He has the ability to just go and make a play, and that is his responsibility, coach Aaron Fearne said.It helps when you have someone who can make plays, as much as coaches like structure and plays, he can just go and make it happen.The loss is the Breakers second in a row and coach Paul Henare could only lament his sides slow start.We came out flat and we didnt have the energy required which is hugely disappointing, Henare said.I trusted our group to make good decisions down the stretch but we fell well short of that in the last few minutes.New Zealand will face the Illawarra Hawks next on Thursday, while the Taipans will travel to Brisbane to face the Brisbane Bullets on Saturday. 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