s way through the packed stands at the Maria Lenk Aquatics Centre. The 8-year-old Perrone then settled into his fathers lap to watch his uncle and Brazil

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? Opportunity, Matheny said. What are you going to do with it?Swell Vesipullo . - Blake Griffin had 30 points and 12 rebounds, J. Swell Pullo Hinta . LUCIE, Fla. http://www.swellbottlesuomi.com/swell-juomapullo.html . Houston won 3-0 to advance to face New York in the Eastern Conference semifinals. Last in the game, Di Vaio and Romero got into a shoving match with several Houston players. Romero appeared to elbow and kick Houston defender Kofi Sarkodie. Swell Pullo .ca NFL Power Rankings, overtaking the Denver Broncos and remaining ahead of NFC competition San Francisco, Carolina and New Orleans. Swell Suomi . Darren Helm scored on Detroits sixth attempt in the shootout and then Jonas Gustavsson stopped Andrew Shaws shot, lifting the Detroit Red Wings to a 5-4 win over the Chicago Blackhawks on Wednesday night.RIO DE JANEIRO -- Rodrigo Perrone, wearing a blue water polo cap, deftly made his way through the packed stands at the Maria Lenk Aquatics Centre. The 8-year-old Perrone then settled into his fathers lap to watch his uncle and Brazil take on world champion Serbia on Wednesday.I love soccer, the bubbly little boy said through a translator, and its like soccer in the water.Sure enough.Rodrigo is still on the fence -- I will play one day and the next day I will not, he said matter-of-factly -- but Brazils mens and womens water polo teams are hoping the excitement of the Olympics will help them grow the sport in their soccer-crazy country.Winning helps, of course, and Brazils mens team has been the tournaments most pleasant surprise so far. Playing in front of another big crowd -- with green-and-yellow-clad fans waving flags, singing and cheering right to the final horn -- the home country posted an impressive 6-5 victory over the gold-medal favorites. It leads Group B with a perfect 3-0 record.I think all the work we did for this Olympic Games already change a little bit the water polo in Brazil, said driver Gustavo Guimaraes, who connected on a tiebreaking penalty shot with 46 seconds left. The media, the person like `Oh, whats the water polo? A lot of people doesnt know whats this sport, and its an expensive sport.But the most important thing is that if you are able to do always better and do a good example inside the water, its going to change this, and I hope water polo in Brazil becomes like volleyball, soccer, something like this.Brazils players celebrated the victory by waving their caps and applauding to the roaring crowd from the center of the pool.We had to do this. The crowd was amazing, so we have to go there and say thank you for everybody, smiling center back Felipe da Costta E Silva said.ddddddddddddBrazil qualified for the Olympics as the host country. Its the first Olympic appearance for the mens team since 1984, and the debut for the womens squad -- underlining water polos status on the sporting landscape in Brazil.While Olympic success is new for Brazil, its more of the same for its coach, Ratko Rudic, who has guided three different countries to a total of four gold medals. It also has the talented Felipe Perrone and big Josip Vrlic, who combined for three goals against Serbia, but its clear the countrys success begins with its veteran coach.Ratko is the best coach in the world, Guimaraes said. He won everything.U.S. captain Tony Azevedo, a Rio native who plays professionally for Sesi in Sao Paulo, also is hoping Brazils success leads to more water polo players in the country.Swimmings a huge sport here. So is water polo, Azevedo said, and now finally they have a team that they can cheer for. They have a team thats good. They have one of the best players in the world with Felipe Perrone. Its exciting, and I think Brazilians, and youll see, its not just water polo, its all sports out there, especially Brazilian sports, but water polo is finally getting its name out there in the country and I love that.Before Brazils win over Serbia, the United States beat France 6-3 for its first victory of the tournament. Josh Samuels scored three times and McQuin Baron made 11 saves.Also Wednesday, Australia edged Japan 8-6, Greece and Hungary played to an 8-8 draw and undefeated Italy earned a 6-5 win against Montenegro. In the final match of the day, Spain beat Croatia 9-4.---Jay Cohen can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/jcohenap ' ' '