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ST. Alex Smith Chiefs Jersey . LOUIS -- Matt Carpenter came up empty Sunday in his bid for a 200-hit season. St. Louis second baseman could have cared less. Carpenter and the Cardinals clinched home-field advantage throughout the National League playoffs when they beat the Chicago Cubs 4-0 for their sixth straight win. "That last one (hit) was tough to find," Carpenter said after going 0 for 4. "From an individual standpoint 200 hits is a cool thing, but more importantly we won a big game today and have the best record in the National League." With the top seed, the Central League champions will host the wild-card winner in Game 1 of an NL division series on Thursday. Joe Kelly (10-5) pitched 5 1-3 innings of three-hit ball in relief of Jake Westbrook as the Cardinals matched a season high winning streak to finish 97-65, their most since reaching 100 in 2005. St. Louis also won six straight from April 30-May 5. The Cardinals have won eight of nine and 17 of 22. Carpenter finished with a league-leading 199 hits. He struck out in the seventh in his last opportunity. Carpenter said he felt a little pressure in his at-bats Sunday. "Its one of those things, when guys are chasing certain (goals) it can kind of get to them a little," he said. "I dont know if it did or not." The milestone was important to manager Mike Matheny, who said Carpenters failure was the lone damper on the afternoon. "He was pushing hard, "he said. "But what a season." Carpenter also finished first in the NL in runs (126), doubles (55) and multihit games (63). "Now all those stats go out the window, its just about winning games," he said. "But, Im pleased and proud with what Ive done." Jon Jay, Daniel Descalso, Shane Robinson and Tony Cruz drove in runs for St. Louis. The Cubs, who lost 41 of their last 59 games, finish last in the Central at 66-96. Chicago manager Dale Sveum, who is scheduled to meet Monday with Cubs management to discuss his future, says a lack of offence hurt his club the last month. "We didnt score a lot," he said. "When youre facing the Cardinals, Reds, Pirates, Atlanta, its going to be tough." St. Louis starter Jake Westbrook pitched one inning before Kelly came on in relief. Westbrook is not likely to be on the post-season roster and the Cardinals are not expected to pick up his option for next season. Kelly struck out five in his first relief appearance since re-joining the starting rotation on July 6. "It was a little different, but my mindset was the same the whole time," Kelly said. "I felt like I was commanding my fastball on both sides of the plate. I was just trying to keep a high level of focus and attack these guys." Matheny called it, "one of his best all-around outings." Randy Choate, Carlos Martinez and Kevin Siegrist contributed to the five-man, five-hit shutout. The Cardinals scored twice in the fourth off Chicago starter Jeff Samardzija (8-13) to take a 3-0 lead. Matt Adams and Descalso hit back-to-back doubles to push the advantage to 2-0. Robinson followed with a run-scoring single. Samardzija gave up three runs on eight hits in six innings. "I had a strong year, I felt good," Samardzija said. "I pitched every start, threw a lot of innings and had a lot of strikeouts." Jay, who drove in a run with a single in the third, extended his hitting streak to a career-high 14 games with a single in the first. St. Louis catcher Yadier Molina took the field to start the game, but was removed before the first pitch. Molina received a standing ovation as he walked to the dugout. Right fielder Carlos Beltran was taken out at the start of the fifth inning and also left to a loud applause. "Today, we were proud to do something that could honour our guys," Matheny said. "The fans like to acknowledge our guys." NOTES: St. Louis recognized the 50th anniversary of Stan Musials last game as a Cardinal with commemorative patches on their uniforms. Musial went 2 for 3 and singled in his final at-bat of a 3-2 win over Cincinnati. ... Matheny indicated that Adam Wainwright (19-9, 2.94) will start the first game of the NL division series. The Cubs closed the season losing 41 of their last 59. ...A crowd of 44,808 gave the Cardinals their 25th sellout of the season. Christian Okoye Chiefs Jersey . -- Timbers coach Caleb Porter didnt stray from his business-like approach to the season even after Portland downed the two-time defending league champion Los Angeles Galaxy to gain crucial playoff position. Marcus Peters Chiefs Jersey .Y. -- Canadas Kaillie Humphries and Heather Moyse have another World Cup gold medal after winning the two-women bobsled race on Saturday in Lake Placid, N. http://www.prochiefsauthentic.com/Youth-Jared-Cook-Elite-Jersey/ .C. -- Chris Thorburn thinks one of the reasons the Winnipeg Jets have been successful under new coach Paul Maurice is that theyre playing together as a team.OKLAHOMA CITY -- The Oklahoma City Thunder showed Wednesday night that they dont always need to have Kevin Durant score in the fourth quarter to win a close game. Durant scored just two of his 26 points in the final 12 minutes and his teammates -- including Derek Fisher, Jeremy Lamb and Reggie Jackson -- stood in the gap, helping Oklahoma City pull away for a 106-97 win over a Minnesota Timberwolves team without Kevin Love and two other starters. Jackson added 20 points (seven in the fourth quarter) and nine assists for the Thunder, who won for the 12th time in their last 13 games and became the NBAs first team this season to 40 wins. The Thunder won for the ninth straight time at home against Minnesota, which entered the game 3 1/2 games behind Dallas in the race for the eighth and final playoff spot from the Western Conference. The Thunder have won eight straight home games and are 15-1 this season against Western Conference foes at Chesapeake Energy Arena. "We just focus on doing our job every night and living with the results and theyve been pretty good for a while now," Oklahoma City coach Scott Brooks said. "We have expectations to a standard that we want to play at and I think weve done a good job with that going into the All-Star break. "This is funky time for a lot of teams because a lot of players are probably thinking about the break and what theyre doing, getting their plans together. Weve never been a team that has done that and I dont anticipate that happening this year." Love, an All-Star forward, sat out with a stiff neck after taking a hard fall Tuesday in a win over the Los Angeles Lakers. Center Nikola Pecovic (ankle injury) and forward Corey Brewer (family leave) also didnt play for the Timberwolves. Minnesota coach Rick Adelman said he was proud of the way his undermanned team fought. "I think it shows that these guys compete," Adelman said. "They werent afraid to go play them with three starters out. It gave the other guys an opportunity to play. I couldnt be prouder of the way they competed. We just ran a little bit out of gas at the end." With Minnesota devoting its defensive energies to stopping Durant, other Thunder players made the key plays in the final minutes. The score was tied in the closing seconds of the third quarter when Fisher attempted a 3-pointer from the corner that appeared to be long, but Minnesotas Gorgui Dieng accidentally tapped it into the basket to give the Thunder an 80-77 lead. Fisher finished with 13 points, his second-best offensive outing of the season. "Ive never seen that before," Durant said of the goaltending call on Dieng. "That guy is a rookie . so Im sure hes going to learn from that one. BBut that gave us a boost and at the start of the fourth those guys came out and played extremely hard and thats what we needed. Allen Bailey Chiefs Jersey. " Lamb opened the fourth quarter with another 3-pointer to push Oklahoma Citys lead to six points. The Thunder finished off the 16-4 run with a dunk by Lamb with 7:17 left that made it 93-81, but Oklahoma City suddenly went cold from the field. Durant was called for a technical foul with 4:39 left after protesting a no-call, but Ricky Rubio missed the ensuing free throw, leaving the score at 93-86. Minnesota pulled within 95-89 after a 3-pointer by Robbie Hummel with 3:45 left, but the Timberwolves came no closer. "We came into the game aggressive and we fought all the way through, but in the last five minutes, I think we missed too many free throws and easy shots while they made shots at the end," said Rubio, who had 19 points, eight rebounds and five assists. Thabo Sefolosha, who missed his first seven 3-point attempts, made one from the corner with 1:43 left to extend the Thunders lead to 100-90 and Minnesota came no closer than nine points the rest of the way. "Theyre NBA players, too," Durant said of his teammates. "Its not like Ive been scoring every point in the fourth. We play off each other. Guys hit big shots and we got stops. . We play a team game here." Durant, who also had nine rebounds and seven assists, continued his strong play against the Timberwolves. He had a triple-double in a home win over the Timberwolves on Dec. 1 and scored 48 points in a win at Minnesota on Jan. 4 before his outburst Wednesday. The Timberwolves led by as many as six points in the second quarter, but Oklahoma City took a 56-54 lead after Durant swished a 3-pointer at the buzzer. Durant had 16 points, six rebounds and five assists by halftime. Dante Cunningham added 18 points on 9-of-13 shooting for Minnesota. Serge Ibaka had 14 points and seven rebounds for the Thunder. NOTES: Brewer didnt travel with the team following the birth of his son on Tuesday. The Timberwolves say hes expected to return for Fridays game at New Orleans. Luc Richard Mbah a Moute replaced Brewer in the starting lineup. ... Durant was the Western Conference player of the month for January. He averaged 35.9 points per game while shooting 54.9 per cent during the month, leading Oklahoma City to a 10-game winning streak. He scored 30 or more points in 12 straight games. ... Olympic gold-medal winning gymnasts Bart Conner and Nadia Comaneci, who live in nearby Norman, attended the game. ... Hummel saw his first action since Jan. 6 at Philadelphia. He played 17 minutes and scored five points. .. Oklahoma City C Kendrick Perkins matched his season high with 12 rebounds. Wholesale Jerseys China' ' '