The Brewers have agreed to acquire LHP C.C. Sabathia from the Cleveland Indians in exchange for OF/1B Matt LaPorta.

ESPN.com says the Brewers and the Indians agreed in principle to a deal for the reigning AL Cy Young on Sunday. The deal is contingent on paperwork being finished and the exchange of medical records.

I say this is the most exciting move of a lackluster season. The Brewers are coming on like gangbusters, having won 5 of their last 6 and bounding into a tie for second place in the NLC, being 3.5 back from the Cubs. Adding Sabathia to the Ben Sheets punch might just be enough for Cubs to blame their impending implosion on.

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Ryan Dempster hasn’t won a game on the road for all of 2008. With a start where he pitched 6 innings and allowed only 2 runs, you might think he would have broken that string. Especially if you knew that the Cubs scored 6.

Alas, Carlos Marmol swooped in for the vulture win. Marmol has struggled lately, so putting him in the game in the 7th with the Cubs sporting a spiffy new 3 run lead might have seemed like a good time for him to work some things out. But it wasn’t.

Mike Fontenot gave Marmol the vulture win with his go-ahead homer, leaving Dempster to stew in the dugout, happy that the team won but wishing, just wishing, that he could finally win on the road.

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Remember when Jay Bruce was called up for the Reds and he was awesome and optimistic and full of life and excited about how he was going to help the club win? Sigh. If only he were on any other team besides the Reds. Heck, at this point, he might have a better shot with the Pirates, who defeated the Reds last night and won the series.

Yes, the Pirates defeated the Reds in Cincinnati, where the Reds had been good. Pittsburgh had been anything but on the road, but they’re obviously better than the Reds. Pittsburgh now sits in 5th place, with Cincinnati 1.5 games behind them in last.

Anyway, back to Bruce. He hit two home runs in the process of going 2-3 with a walk and drove in 4. Honestly, he’s lucky to have gotten as many RBI as he did, considering he was leading off for some insane reason. Who’s the idiot manager of the Reds anyway? Oh. Right.

So despite giving his all, the Reds lost, and just a little bit of Bruce’s soul died. Unfortunately, it won’t be the last time, not as long as he plays for Cincinnati.

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The Cardinals narrowly escaped from Mark Mulder’s second outing since being reinstated from the disabled list.

Mulder came on in relief in the seventh inning. Thanks to earlier ineffective pitching from starter Joel Pineiro, the game St. Louis had taken a 4-run 1st inning lead in was tied. Mulder promptly gave up 2 runs.

But not to worry! Chris Duncan and Troy Glaus flew to the rescue, launching home runs to tie and then win the game for St. Louis.

It was a good thing, too. With the Cubs winning and the ribald rivalry with Chicago looming, it’s in St. Louis’ best interests to be as close as possible. Got to make that series a battle for first place, after all.

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The Reds lost last night, which isn’t news. The news is that Edinson Volquez had a second consecutive less-than-stellar start. His chances of starting the All Star game are fading, while his chances of garnering the nickname Edinson “Jack Armstrong” Volquez are increasing.

Brandon Phillips was the human highlight reel for the Reds, going 3-5 with a home run and 4 RBI. It wasn’t enough, though, because David Weathers was pitching.

The Pirates took their final lead off of Weathers in the 11th, getting 2 runs off of him, which was just enough to not give it up in the bottom of the inning. Not that they didn’t try. Cincinnati scored one in the bottom of the 11th and had a chance to tie it, but thankfully for the Pirates, Corey Patterson “plays” for the Reds.