To add a little bit of pop to their lineup, the St. Louis Cardinals have traded for Mark DeRosa. In return, the Cleveland Cavaliers received Chris Perez, a relief pitcher, and a player to be named later.

The Indians acquired DeRosa in the offseason in a deal with the Chicago Cubs. The 34-year-old DeRosa was playing third base for Cleveland. On the season, he is hitting .267 with 13 homers, 50 RBIs and 47 runs.

The acquisition of DeRosa should help the Cardinals in their fight with the Milwaukee Bucks for the NL Central title. Currently, the two teams are tied atop the division.

For Cleveland, they are in a rebuilding mode. With the worst record in the AL, the Indians decided to trade DeRosa for a player who could possibly help for a number of years. The 23-year-old Perez has a 4.18 ERA and has racked up 30 strikeouts in 23.2 innings.

Mark DeRosa Traded to the Cardinals (Image: Zuma Press)

If Albert Pujols isn’t the best hitter in baseball, he’s right there near the top. The St. Louis Cardinals saw two more examples of his greatness on Saturday. In an interleague game against the Cleveland Indians, Pujols hit a pair of solo homers to lead the Cardinals to a 3-1 victory.

Albert Pujols - St. Louis Cardinals (Image: Zuma Press)

In the fourth inning, Pujols hit his first long ball. After the Indians tied it up in the bottom of the fourth, Pujols hit his second homer in his next at bat in the 6th inning. The Cardinals would never trail again.

On the mound, Brad Thompson picked up his first win of the season. Pitching six strong innings, Thompson gave up three hits, two walks and on unearned run while striking five batters. His ERA on the season dropped to 3.60.

With the win, St. Louis improved to 34-29. Currently, that record places the Cardinals in second place in the NL Central — a half game behind the Milwaukee Brewers. In the NL Wild Card race, the Cardinals have a slim lead over the San Francisco Giants and the New York Mets.

The loss dropped the Indians to 28-36 and into last place in the AL Central.

The New York Yankees played their first official game at the new Yankee Stadium on Thursday. For six innings, everything seemed to be going fine. Then the Cleveland Indians exploded in the seventh inning and ruined the party.

New Yankee Stadium (Image: Newscom)

The the game tied at one, the Indians scored nine times in the top of the seventh and then held on for a 10-2 victory. The win bettered the Indians record to 3-7, while the loss sent the Yankees to 5-5.

In the seventh inning, the Indians got a solo shot from Victor Martinez and a grand slam from Grady Sizemore. Kelly Shoppach, who had an RBI double to get Cleveland on the board in the fourth inning, added a one-run single in the seventh.

For the Yankees, their two runs were courtesy of a Jorge Posada homer in the fifth and a Robinson Cano single in the seventh.

Cliff Lee, last year’s Cy Young award winner in the American League, got the win for Cleveland by pitching six innings and giving up only one earned run. C.C. Sabathia pitched 5.2 innings and also gave up only one run.

Through the weekend, Yankees and Indians will play three more times at the new Yankee Stadium.

C.C. Sabathia to Milwaukee. It’s been the talk this past weekend all over the sports blogosphere. Is Cleveland smart to trade him? Are they just glad he didn’t end up a Yankee? Whatever the reason, there’s word that the 2007 minor league player of the year for the Brewers was in the deal for the Indians.

Juiced Sports Blog is reporting that in the trade, Taylor Green was in the package for the Indians. He’s 21, out of Cypress College in California, and was selected in the 25th round in the 2005 draft. He batted .327, had 14 home runs, and 86 RBI’s in the 2007 season. Along with him, the Indians will be adding left fielder Matt LaPorta and pitchers Rob Bryson and Zach Jackson.

With C.C. Sabathia in Milwaukee, this could make the race for the NL Central a bit more interesting. They, like St. Louis, are 3.5 games back of Chicago. Hey, the Reds are only 7 games behind them in the standings! This will definitely make for an interesting race for the NL Central. Not including the Reds of course. But maybe…..a girl can dream, can’t she?

Travis Hafner has a fantastic nickname. It’s not one of those silly abbreviation nicknames. No, no T-Haf here. No sir, Travis Hafner is Pronk. In the minors, Hafner had two nicknames: Project and Donkey. Project Donkey already being a successful reality show on Bravo, the two names were combined to the sublime Pronk. I find Pronk to be an especially entertaining nickname because it kind of seems like a dirty verb. Pronking just sounds like something one wouldn’t do in polite society.

To my delight, the always outrageous Onion News Network has examined the versatility of the word Pronk. It’s hilariously Pronk-surd.