ST. LOUIS - The St. Louis Cardinals signed free-agent second baseman Mark Ellis to a one-year, $5.25 million contract, giving them insurance for rookie Kolten Wong. In a conference call after the deal was announced Monday, the 36-year-old Ellis said he had some multiyear offers but chose the Cardinals because he wants to win a World Series. Ellis played for the Dodgers in the NL championship series last fall against St. Louis, which won the Series in 2011 and lost in six games to the Red Sox in 2013. "I am fully fine with one-year deals at this point in my career," Ellis said. "There were some good opportunities, very good teams and very good organizations. I felt like this was the perfect place for myself and my family." The contract calls for an additional $125,000 at 250 plate appearances and for every 25 plate appearances after that up to 475 plate appearances. "Nothing was promised," Ellis said. "Ive pretty much been an everyday player my whole career. Im going to prepare this off-season like Im going to play 162 games." Ellis is a lifetime .265 hitter for three teams. He hit .270 with six home runs and 48 RBIs for the Dodgers last season, and is considered a strong defensive second baseman. Hes had only spot duty at other infield positions during his career, but was open to that option, noting he played third base two years in college and was a shortstop growing up. "Im not so stubborn I have a huge ego that I have to be the second baseman," Ellis said. "I dont care. I want to do whatever it takes to win a World Series." Wong, a first-round pick in 2011, made his major league debut last year and is expected to get the starting shot at second base in 2014. Matt Carpenter moves to third base following the trade of David Freese to the Angels and Ellis provides a right-handed hitting option, plus hes open to a mentor role. Before learning of Carpenters position switch, Ellis hadnt thought the Cardinals would be a good fit. "Mark is a player we identified early-on as being an ideal fit for our team," general manager John Mozeliak said in a statement. "His experience and steadiness, both in the field and at the plate, certainly enhances our overall roster makeup." Ellis has appeared in 22 post-season games and batted .240 in the NLCS last fall with a double, triple and stolen base. Ellis has hit 20 or more doubles nine of the past 10 years and is a career .276 hitter with a .348 on-base percentage against left-handed pitching. He was a ninth round pick of the Kansas City Royals in 1999. Cheap Shoes Outlet Stores .2 million in 2012, according to tax returns the league has submitted. Wholesale Shoes China Free Shipping . Playing in his fourth major league game, Polanco broke a tie in the 13th inning with his first homer, helping Pittsburgh to an 8-6 victory over the Miami Marlins after the Pirates had a ninth-inning meltdown. http://www.cheapshoes.us.org/. Howard had 17 points and a career-high-tying 26 rebounds in his Houston debut, James Harden added 21 points and the Rockets cruised to a 96-83 win over the Charlotte Bobcats on Wednesday night. Trendy Wholesale Shoes .Murray has played 20 matches in five weeks, winning three titles to climb to fifth in the ATP Race.The two-time Grand Slam champion also seeks to qualify for next months ATP World Tour Finals.Murray said: I always wanted to qualify for it, but also I want to get back into the top 8 players in the world and it makes a huge difference for seedings in the major events. Cheap Fake Shoes Online . Adam Lind provided the power and rookie starter Marcus Stroman had the best start of his young career as the Blue Jays dumped the Yankees 8-3 at Rogers Centre. Stroman, making his fifth start for Toronto, allowed one earned run and three hits over a career-high eight innings.TORONTO -- The Toronto Blue Jays have used power, speed and pitching on a recent surge that has put them in first place in the American League East. Their 3-1 victory over the Oakland Athletics on Sunday showed just how well that combination can work. Edwin Encarnacion provided the power with his 14th homer of the season, Jose Reyes provided the speed by equalling a career best for a game with three stolen bases and left-hander J.A. Happ provided the pitching with seven runless innings. Put it all together, and you get a team thats on a season-best six-game winning streak and has won 16 of its past 21 games. "I dont know if you ever see it coming," Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said. "What it really comes down to is were just playing good baseball. The starting pitching has been really good, our offence has been alive, the bullpen has been solid." The Blue Jays (29-22) swept the three-game series with the Athletics (30-20) who lead the AL West despite losing their past four games. "Our three pitchers and their three pitchers were very good," Gibbons said. "And in those tight ball games, some clutch hitting and some great base running made the difference in most of those games. So ride it, ride it." It was Torontos second straight sweep after taking three games from the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park. Happ (4-1) allowed four hits and three walks while striking out seven in his longest outing of the season. "Hes filling up the strike zone," Gibbons said. "Hes really doing a nice job of using his fastball on both sides of the plate. Hes locked in right now. (Catcher Erik) Kratz has done a great job with him." Dustin McGowan replaced Happ in the eighth and allowed Josh Donaldsons 11th homer of the season. Casey Janssen pitched the ninth inning to earn his seventh save in as many attempts this season. "Definitely wanted to pitch off the fastball today and Kratz did a great job behind the plate," Happ said. "We were on the same page and tried to use that. "First and foremost it was about me throwing the ball where Im supposed to throw it, and then pitching off the fastball and using everything. I thought today we did a good job establishing the fastball." As left-hander Drew Pomeranz (4-2) allowed five hits, four walks and two runs in four-plus innings. "I think I maybe tried to locate a little too much instead of going right at guys and ended up walking too many people and being in bad counts a lot," Pomeranz said. "I wasnt attacking guys like I should have." The Blue Jays did not have a hit until Encarnacion homered to left on a 2-2 fastball with one out in the fourth. It was the 14th of the year and the 12th of the month, tying him with Jose&nbbsp;Bautista for the team record for homers in May.ddddddddddddThe run also snapped a string of 18 consecutive runless innings for Pomeranz. Toronto went on to load the bases in the inning on singles by Brett Lawrie and Dioner Navarro and a walk by Steve Tolleson, but Kratz grounded into a double play to end the inning. The Blue Jays loaded the bases in the fifth on a single to centre by Kevin Pillar, an infield hit by Reyes and a walk to Melky Cabrera. Bautista singled off right-hander Jim Johnson to score one run, but Reyes was thrown out at home by left-fielder Yoenis Cespedes. Encarnacions pop to centre field dropped in but Bautista was forced at second on centre-fielder Craig Gentrys throw to Johnson covering second base. Gibbons immediately challenged but the review upheld the call. Unconvinced, Gibbons argued and was ejected for the first time this season. "I was looking up at that (score) board and it looked pretty obvious to me," Gibbons said. "Their video probably isnt as big as that board maybe. I guess its a good system but its not a perfect system. That was big right there. We were sitting pretty good with a chance to blow the game open if hes safe. The out call changes the whole complexion a I thought they got it wrong out there." Bautistas sacrifice fly against right-hander Luke Gregerson in the seventh gave Toronto a 3-0 lead, scoring Reyes who opened the inning with a single and stole second and third. The three steals in a game equalled a career best for Reyes who has done it eight times. The previous time was Sept. 25, 2008, against the Chicago Cubs when he was with the New York Mets. "He can really generate his own runs when he gets in scoring position," Gibbons said. "Jose is feeling good right now. ... Hes exciting, thats one of the reasons they brought him over here." The Athletics completed a nine-game trip at 5-4 starting with five wins against the Cleveland Indians and the Tampa Bay Rays. "You go through these periods," As manager Bob Melvin said. "Youve just got to fight your way through it. "Youre not always going to score seven, eight runs a game and right now were going through a drought." NOTES: The last time the Blue Jays were alone in first place later than May 24 was July 6, 2000. aRight-hander R.A. Dickey lowered his earned-run average to 3.95 with his 8 1/3-inning outing in Saturdays win to drop his ERA below 4.00 for the first time in his Blue Jays career. a The Blue Jays open a three-game series at Rogers Centre against the Tampa Bay Rays on Monday with right-hander Drew Hutchison (3-3, 3.45 ERA) facing Ottawa left-hander Erik Bedard (2-2. 2.63 ERA). aAttendance was 45,277, the fourth sellout of the season. ' ' '