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 winner Saturday will remain in the elite 10-team field next year. "We talked about wanting to be disciplined and stick with our game plan and good things will come," Draisaitl said, who had two goals for the victors. STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- Penn State players and coaches rolled hopefully back into Happy Valley on Sunday, greeted as Big Ten champions by cheers and honking car horns.They got off the team bus, filed into a meeting room and huddled around a giant projector screen as the College Football Playoff selection committee made its picks.As the contenders were announced, it became clear -- this unexpectedly triumphant season was going to fall frustratingly short of college footballs biggest stage.The fifth-ranked Nittany Lions -- winners of nine straight, including a huge comeback against No. 8 Wisconsin in the Big Ten championship game -- wont be part of the four-team playoff. Despite a head-to-head win against No. 2 Ohio State, the Big Ten title and a run fueled by one of the countrys most explosive offenses, Penn State was ranked fifth by the selection committee.Instead of playing for a national title, Penn State (11-2) will face No. 9 Southern California (9-3) in the Rose Bowl on Jan. 2.I would say there were a handful of guys that obviously showed a little bit of frustration and body language and things like that, Penn State coach James Franklin said. But 99 percent of the guys in there are just excited about staying together as a family and being able to play in such a historic bowl game.News about the bowl destination quelled a bit of that disappointment, and some, including quarterback Trace McSorley , tweeted their excitement with rose emojis Sunday.Franklin didnt sleep much on the flight back from Indianapolis and is about to start a six-day recruiting trip, but he was still clearly amped for the Rose Bowl during a phone call with reporters -- even though he believed his team had done enough to go to the playoff by winning what he called the toughest conference in football.ddddddddddddbviously, our guys wouldve loved to have the opportunity to go to the playoffs and compete for a national championship, Franklin said. But like I said during the week, I thought our guys would be appreciative of the opportunity to be able to stay together as a family for another week and play the great game of football.Theyll do so against a team thats on a similar trajectory.The Nittany Lions and Trojans have combined to win 17-straight games and are among the hottest teams in college football. Both have mounted striking turnarounds after ho-hum starts, energizing historically strong programs that had struggled with the weight of NCAA penalties in recent years.Franklin arrived at Penn State in 2014 and took over a program heavily sanctioned by the NCAA for the universitys role in the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal. Although the Nittany Lions have a full scholarship load this season, theyre still feeling the impact from reduced scholarship numbers and start just five seniors, with only 17 on the roster.USC, meanwhile, incurred NCAA penalties, including the loss of 30 scholarships, in the wake of a scandal involving former football player Reggie Bush and basketball player O.J. Mayo, who the NCAA determined accepted gifts in the mid-2000s.This will be the third time the programs match up in the Rose Bowl -- the first was in 1923 and the other in 2009.I think it makes for fabulous TV, thats for sure, USC coach Clay Helton said. And it makes for a great bowl experience and thats what this time is all about. ' ' '