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ST. Eric Weddle Jersey . LOUIS -- Once again, the St. Louis Cardinals gazed at the big-screen TVs, hoping for a little help. Unlike the previous night, there werent any plans for a late-night victory party. "Im sending them home," rookie manager Mike Matheny said after a 3-1 loss to the Cincinnati Reds on Tuesday kept St. Louis post-season plans on hold for a few hours. "They need to get some rest." Indeed, they do. The Cardinals are headed back to the playoffs to defend their World Series championship. St. Louis clinched baseballs final post-season berth early Wednesday when the Los Angeles Dodgers lost 4-3 to San Francisco. After wrapping up the second NL wild card, the Cardinals will play at Atlanta on Friday in the new one-game playoff. The loss left the Dodgers them two games behind St. Louis with one to go. Cardinals players stayed in the clubhouse after beating the Reds on Monday night to watch the Dodgers edge the Giants, trudging home after midnight when Los Angeles snapped a ninth-inning tie to win. One night later, St. Louis got in with some help. For their part, the NL Central champion Reds did their best to keep the Cardinals down. "All they need is a chance," said Jay Bruce, who had an RBI single in the sixth. "We saw that last year. They got in and they made the best out of it, literally made the best out of it. They won the World Series. "Were just going to keep playing good baseball and prepare ourselves for the playoffs. If that means they dont make the playoffs, so be it." Mat Latos won his fourth straight decision to finish the regular season and Scott Rolen homered off Chris Carpenter. Cincinnati remained tied with Washington for the leagues best record. The Reds need a win Wednesday and a Nationals loss to earn home-field advantage throughout the post-season. "We dont know if its going to be advantageous to get first, second or third, or the wild card," manager Dusty Baker said. "Right now, this is all new. "All of us, same in the American League as in our league, we all have to start on the road." The 37-year-old Carpenter (0-2) has a wealth of big-game experience and went 4-0 in the post-season last fall for the World Series champions, memorably outdueling Philadelphia ace Roy Halladay in Game 5 of the NL division series. Injured most of this season, Carpenter made just his third start of the year gave up a pair of runs in the sixth to snap a 1-all tie. Bruce and Dioner Navarro had RBIs. "Ive said all along this is like my third spring training start in a key situation," Carpenter said. "Im concerned about the stuff and the sharpness and tonight it was better than the last time. "So, hopefully I get another shot." Despite the loss, the Cardinals are 11-4 in their last 15 games. Theyll draw Homer Bailey (13-10, 3.75 ERA), coming off a no-hitter at Pittsburgh, in the regular-season finale, with Adam Wainwright (14-13, 3.94) pitching for St. Louis. "Its every pitchers dream to pitch in the big moment," Wainwright said. "Hopefully the Dodgers will lose and well be able to go on our merry way. If not, Im looking forward to the challenge." Latos (14-4) had an abbreviated appearance while freshening up for the post-season and, like teammate Bronson Arroyo a day earlier, worked five innings and threw fewer than 75 pitches. Latos allowed a run on four hits with four strikeouts, all in a span of four at-bats against the bottom of the St. Louis lineup. The 24-year-old Latos was 4-0 with a 2.27 ERA over his last seven starts and set career highs in starts (34) and innings (209 1-3). "Pitching against a team like them, theyre aggressive, they know what theyre doing," Latos said. "A great hitting ballclub. To give up one run in five innings is doing pretty well." With what was left of an announced crowd of 39,644 standing and hooting, Aroldis Chapman worked the ninth for his 38th save in 43 chances. He has allowed just one hit in four scoreless appearances covering four innings since returning from a nine-game absence due to shoulder fatigue on Sept. 21. Carpenter gave up three runs and seven hits in six innings while losing for the fifth time in 19 career decisions against Cincinnati. He had seven strikeouts, two more than his total for the first two starts over 11 innings. The Cardinals stranded two runners in the second and third against Latos and had two on with one out in the seventh before Sean Marshall got pinch-hitter Shane Robinson to fly out and Jon Jay on a broken-bat groundout. Rolen, batting .247 but hitting at a .301 clip since the All-Star break, tied it in the fourth when he jumped on a first-pitch hanging breaking ball for his eighth homer. Baker played for keeps in the early going. He brought the infield in with a runner on third and one out in the first for Matt Holliday, who hit a sacrifice fly, then intentionally walked eighth-place hitter Pete Kozma with two outs and a man on third in the second inning to get to Carpenter, who grounded out sharply to third. NOTES: Carpenter has 1,085 strikeouts with St. Louis, six more than Bob Forsch for third on the franchise list. Next is Dizzy Dean at 1,095. ... Reds pinch-hitter Todd Frazier grounded out sharply with two on to end the sixth, dropping him to 6 for 12 with three RBIs in that role. ... Joey Votto doubled and walked twice and has a major league-leading .515 on-base percentage with 27 walks since returning to the lineup Sept. 5. ... Jay had two hits and has 37 multihit games on the year, 21 of them since Aug. 6. .. Holliday has consecutive multihit games, giving him 55 on the year. Malcom Floyd Jersey . For the Miami Heat forward, just being back on the floor is enough these days. After two injury-filled seasons, Miller insists hes feeling better and stronger these days, as the reigning NBA champion Heat settle into the opening days of training camp. Antonio Gates Womens Jersey . Frank Francisco walked a pair of batters with the bases loaded and two outs in the ninth inning, then gave up a two-run double to Martin Prado that put the potential tying run on third and the go-ahead run on second. http://www.chargersteamstore.com/ryan-mathews-jerseys . The son of English Channel has won his last three starts and will break from the No. Antonio Gates Jersey . Fournels strong start was not enough to keep her on pace with the tough field of competitors, which included top contenders Natasa Douchev-Janics of Hungary and Polands Marta Walczykiewicz. Philip Rivers Womens Jersey . And this time, the training staff is going to make sure there are no recurrences when he returns to the lineup. Kemp went 1 for 4 with a double in two games since being reinstated from the disabled list on Tuesday.TSN.cas MMA staff takes a look at some of the hottest issues in the world of mixed martial arts. 1) Is the UFC making the right move having Jon Jones fight Vitor Belfort at the UFC 152 in Toronto? James Lynch, TSN.ca - Im glad well be seeing Jon Jones on the Toronto card to finally add some star power to the event. This is definitely the right move and having an exciting middleweight like Vitor Belfort move up and take the fight is exactly what the Toronto event needed. Its also interesting because Belfort hasnt fought at light heavyweight since his 2007 Cage Rage victory over James Zikic, and it will be interesting to see how his power and speed translate. Other things to consider are that at 41 years of age, Dan Henderson may be on the shelf for a while, and the right thing for the UFC and Dan Henderson is take their time with his injury while keeping Jones active. While on paper the Jones vs. Belfort match favors the current champion (in terms of his height and reach advantage), Belfort has knockout power, and is a much more thrilling matchup than Lyoto Machida, who was rumored to face Jones on this card initially. Justin Boone, TSN.ca - As someone who resides in Toronto, I am definitely happy that the UFC has added more muscle to the upcoming event. However, I feel the move was made out of necessity. The promotion had no other event to slot the championship bout into. UFC 153 already has a title fight at the top with Jose Aldo now taking on Frankie Edgar in what should be an exciting fight. Waiting any longer only pushes back the next light heavyweight title fight, so Jones slides on top of the Toronto card and fans in Ontario get a chance to see him defend his title once again. While the card might look better on paper, the choice of opponent for Jones is highly questionable. Last time Belfort faced an elite opponent, he was violently knocked out in the first round by Anderson Silva. Jones is a bigger fighter, with a seven-inch reach advantage over Silva and a 10-inch reach advantage over Belfort. In the first meeting between Machida and Jones, at least Machida was able to remain competitive in the first round before being submitted a round later. Sonnen would at least entertain us with words before succumbing to the champions talent. Both Machida and Sonnen were much better options than Belfort. There is a reason why Belfort is a massive underdog in this bout and yes, in the UFC anything can happen, but its awfully hard to challenge for the title when you dont present a challenge at all. 2) Did Jon Jones make the right choice by turning down a title defense against Chael Sonnen at UFC 151? Boone - I guess this is the part where we pile on Jones for forcing the UFC to actually cancel a pay-per-view. I feel like the overwhelming majority of people would say that Jones made a mistake by declining a fight on short notice to save the event, but I also believe that Jones is paying the price for his decision. The light heavyweight champions popularity has taken a significant turn for the worse as Sonnen used the move to launch an all out assault on Twitter. While Jones decision may have been a bad one for his image, it could ultimately be a great turn of events for the UFC. Its been well documented that Jones pay-per-view numbers have suffered, perhaps because he has been so dominant in his short time in the octagon. Regardless, fans may tune in now in hopes of seeing the king get knocked off his throne. Sonnen has done his best to berate Jones and assuming the main event at UFC 152 goes like the oddsmakers expect it to, there could be a fight between Jones and Sonnen in the cards after all. Lynch - Jones shouldnt dictate who he fights, leave that up to matchmaker Joe Silva and the UFC. Youre the champion, and you should be taking on all comers, regardless of the fact that Sonnen doesnt deserve a ttitle shot (going 2-2 in his last four fights and none at light heavyweight). Philip Rivers Jersey. . Dana White revealed on the conference call that Jones coach Greg Jackson believed if Jones had taken the fight it would have been "the biggest mistake of his career". Really? So an opponent who fights at middleweight, coming off a brutal loss and clearly has a size disadvantage is a risk for Jones? I dont think so. Clearly Jones would have a variety of advantages including a full training camp, where as Sonnen would be taking a fight on a weeks notice. Im also pretty sure the UFC would have given Jones a nice payday if money was a concern. The irony about this whole situation is Jones recently stated that he didnt want a fight with Lyoto Machida in the near future because its not "a big money fight". Not only would a fight with Sonnen have been a big money fight but Jones has been rescheduled to fight Belfort, which is a much greater challenge than Sonnen posed. On top of all this, his boss is disappointed he turned down the fight and all the UFC 151 fighters had their bouts cancelled (first time in UFC history) because of his selfish attitude. Luckily many of the UFC 151 fighters have had their bouts rescheduled. 3) Does Frankie Edgar deserve the title shot hes been given against Jose Aldo at UFC 153? Lynch - In any other situation, Id say no, but in this case I agree with the UFCs decision to pit the former lightweight champ in a super fight against the Brazilian 145-pound title holder. The New Jersey native lost not one, but two close fights to Benson Henderson and is still arguably the second best fighter in the lightweight division. He hasnt been finished through 18 fights and poses an interesting threat to the Nova Unio fighter with his wrestling and solid ground game. In addition, the lack of contenders in the featherweight division is evident, with injuries to Erik Koch and Chan Sung Jung, and other contenders like Chad Mendes and Mark Hominick have already lost to the featherweight king. Whats more interesting, is to see how Edgar will perform at featherweight, as hes revealed he didnt cut any weight when he was making his run in the 155-pound division. I think this fight has potential to be fight of the year and Im excited that the UFC is making this fight sooner rather than later. Boone - This may be the first time in recent history that an injury replacement has actually made a UFC main event more intriguing. Aldo is one of the pound-for-pound best fighters in the world and he hasnt been seriously tested in a while. Edgar is more of a contender in the featherweight division than anyone that could have stepped in otherwise and he will push the pace on the champion. With two straight close losses in lightweight title fights, it was going to be a while before the UFC could justify giving him another shot at the champion, so a move to featherweight and an instant championship bout is the perfect solution. While the opportunity is well deserved, Edgar will face the most difficult opponent of his career in Aldo. The reigning featherweight champ is undefeated in the UFC and hasnt been beaten in almost seven years. Edgar will try to become only the second man to ever earn a victory over Aldo. Edgar has gone the distance (five rounds) in five of his last six fights, with the other bout lasting four rounds. Edgar is someone who tends to get stronger as the fight goes on and he may get that chance against Aldo, who has seen the championship rounds in three of his last five bouts. With Jones and Belfort meeting in the main event at UFC 152, Edgar stepping in to challenge Aldo at UFC 153, Georges St-Pierre likely returning at UFC 154, and a heavyweight title fight between Junior Dos Santos and Cain Velasquez headlining UFC 155, the UFC is set up for nice run to end 2012.   ' ' '