Boston Red Sox 4, Tampa Bay Rays 5: I’ll admit I’ve become a big Rays fan over the last year — I don’t consider myself a bandwagon hopper; I do, however, consider myself someone ready to see someone else at the top of the AL — and in their sudden surge to the top, I’m starting to pay a bit more attention to them. BJ Upton led things off for the Rays, blasting a home run in the first inning to put Tampa Bay on top 1-0. The Red Sox scored two runs in the top of the ninth, but fell just short of a rally. The Rays have a half game lead over the Red Sox and face off again tonight.

Kansas City Royals 6, Baltimore Orioles 5: The Orioles have had a surprising season, but losing to KC when you’ve got a four run lead, then eventually giving it up in the 11th is no way to get a rally going.

Texas Rangers 2, New York Yankees 1: The Yanks bats were stifled for a night, but this team is still five games over .500 and pushing in the AL East.

Detroit Tigers 5, Minnesota Twins 4: They’ve won 16 of their last 19, and if they can take this three game series against the Twins, they’ll be coasting. They’ve got six games left against Seattle and Cleveland, and then take four at home against the Twins. Split the games with Minnesota, sweep the Indians and Mariners, and you’re sitting pretty while waiting for the second half to begin.

Cleveland Indians 7, Chicago White Sox 9: The White Sox are a team that no one really talks about. It wasn’t long ago they won the World Series, and they’re starting to look like that team again.

Oakland A’s 6, LA Angels 1: Greg Smith pitched a complete game, giving up four hits and one earned run. The guy’s only 24 years old, has a 3.44 ERA, and is now 5-6 on the year.

Toronto Blue Jays 2, Seattle Mariners 0: Roy Halladay pitched a complete game shutout, striking out six along the way.

New York Mets 1, St. Louis Cardinals 7: At some point, maybe we’ll realize it wasn’t the management that was the problem in New York. The team had three errors — plain and simple, that’s the players.

Pittsburgh Pirates 3, Cincinnati Reds 4: Ken Griffey Jr. hit a two run homer in the ninth — No. 603 on his career — to help power the Reds past the struggling Pirates.

Washington Nationals 5, Florida Marlins 6: Somehow — somehow — this team is still performing. I don’t know how, but the Marlins are winning, and winning regularly.

LA Dodgers 1, Houston Astros 4: In their last 18 games, the Dodgers have found themselves losers 11 of those times. Joe Torre, you’re not managing A-Rod and DJ anymore.

San Diego Padres 15, Colorado Rockies 8: Which of these two teams has been more disappointing?

Milwaukee Brewers 3, Arizona Diamondbacks 6: I still say Arizona will play in the World Series against the Detroit Tigers. My prediction will ring true.

Chicago Cubs 9, San Francisco Giants 2: With each win, the Cubs get their fan base closer and closer to hope, only to fill them with more and more misery come October. I can’t wait.

If I was to do a backflip from one pogo stick to the next pogo stick, I’d contemplate the possibility that my balls may never see a drop of fertile semen again.

This kid didn’t go through all the motions and put two and two together. Instead, he figured he could do a backflip, land his feet on the pogo stick, then continue bouncing. And his balls, as mentioned earlier, will never see a drop of fertile semen again.

It’s all rumors and speculation right now, but LeBron sat down in an interview and cleared the air a little on whether or not he’d join the Knicks. He didn’t rule out playing for the Knicks, not by any means. But he did say his favorite city is Brooklyn, where one New Jersey Nets team plays.

“My favorite borough? Brooklyn,” James said, choosing the proposed future home of the New Jersey Nets over the borough of Manhattan, where the Knicks play their home games. “Brooklyn is definitely a great place here in New York City, and some of my best friends are from Brooklyn, so I stick up for them.”

I understand his love for the city. With that said, for the last two years all we’ve really heard is LBJ complain about not having enough help down in Cleveland. News flash, LBJ: Jason Kidd is gone. And Richard Jefferson. That leaves you with Vince Carter, who can dunk, and some young guys that aren’t very good.

Ben Wallace is looking better and better by the moment.

Arizona Diamondbacks 3, Florida Marlins 4: Brandon Lyon, who has a 2.25 ERA this year for the Diamondbacks, and has been lights out just about every time he’s come in, gave up two runs in the bottom of the ninth as the Marlins rallied to be the reeling D’Backs. Arizona’s pitching has been great this year, but one thing that really stares you in the face is their hitting, where only one starter is batting over .300.

New York Yankees 1, New York Mets 3: The loss puts the Yankees 5.5 games back, but they’re surging. Can their hitting keep up with Tampa and Boston’s pitching as we head into the All Star break?

Baltimore Orioles 2, Washington Nationals 3: At this rate, the Nats will catch the Braves. Seriously.

Tampa Bay Rays 4, Pittsburgh Pirates 3: The Rays don’t have a single everyday starter hitting over .300, but they’re still only a half game back from Boston in the AL East. They’re a fun team to watch, and one thing we’ve seen through the years is that if you have pitching, you’ve got a chance.

Boston Red Sox 2, Houston Astros 3: The Astros took two of three from the BoSox, and now the Rays sit just a half game behind the defending World Champs.

Seattle Mariners 9, San Diego Padres 2: If you needed further proof of your season going south, look no further than losing to the Mariners by 7 runs. Oh, and the Padres were swept. Not good. Not good at all.

LA Angels 1, LA Dodgers 0: The Angels gave up 3 hits in their last 2 games to the Dodgers, and yet they only won one of them. Go figure.

Cincinnati Reds 9, Cleveland Indians 5: The Indians are 37-45. There’s been rumors that C.C. Sabathia may be shopped — with how far back they are in the AL, those rumors may come to pass.

Colorado Rockies 3, Detroit Tigers 4: It was just a matter of time before my AL World Series prediction picked up the pace. They’ve now won 15 of their last 18, are over .500 for the first time this year, and with 6 games left against Seattle and Cleveland before the All Star break, should be looking even better come mid July.

Atlanta Braves 0, Toronto Blue Jays 1: The one bright spot of the year, Chipper Jones, is likely heading to the DL. Great.

St. Louis Cardinals 9, Kansas City Royals 6: Some how — some how! — the Cardinals are 11 games over .500. I’m not certain how — their pitching isn’t very good, and neither is their hitting — but the bottom is they’re winning games.

Milwaukee Brewers 0, Minnesota Twins 5: Ben Sheets looked good until the later innings, then he realized he wasn’t playing the Braves anymore (still bitter about his ridiculous performance a week ago; the Braves just can’t hit good pitching).

San Francisco Giants 11, Oakland A’s 1: The A’s have been a nice surprise, but many more losses to the Giants by 10 runs will be a deflating thing for a young team to overcome.

Philadelphia Phillies 1, Texas Rangers 5: You think there’s anyone in the NL East that actually wants to win?

Chicago Cubs 1, Chicago White Sox 5: Can you say sweep? I’ve said it all year — if they met in the World Series, the White Sox are simply the better team.

Last night the draft took place, and outside of the Grizzlies getting OJ Mayo, who was originally drafted by the T’Wolves, for Kevin Love, there wasn’t a whole ton of surprise. Here’s a recap of the Top 10.

1.) Chicago Bulls, Derrick Rose: This thing was done the moment they landed the No. 1 pick. It’s his hometown, he was the best player in March, and it all made sense. What happens to Kirk Heinrich is up in the air, but this guy will be a star in this league for a long, long time.

2.) Miami Heat, Michael Beasley: Beasley with Marion and D’Wade? Not bad. Not bad at all.

3.) Minnesota T’Wolves, OJ Mayo: He was traded for Kevin Love.

4.) Seattle Supersonics Russell Westbrook: This is the guy I felt would be the steal of the draft, but at the No. 4 spot, is he still a steal? Regardless, he’s going to play lockdown D on anyone that’s got a ball in front of him. Great pick.

5.) Memphis Grizzlies, Kevin Love: Traded for OJ.

6.) New York Knicks, Danilo Gallinari: He’s an Italian guy, one I don’t know much about, but those European players are either great or they bust. The bad news? There’s not many people coming from Europe that play defense, something the Knicks really, really lack.

7.) LA Clippers, Eric Gordon: The one-year Indiana star. We’ll see how he does with the big boys.

8.) Milwaukee Bucks, Joe Alexander: He’s 6′8″, 220 pounds, and they just acquired Richard Jefferson. Where does that put Alexander on the roster?

9.) Charlotte Bobcats, DJ Augustin: Say goodbye to Raymond Felton.

10.) New Jersey Nets, Brook Lopez: Ric Smits, maybe?

Milwaukee Brewers 2, Atlanta Braves 4: Kelly Johnson drove in three runs for the Braves to help them avoid the sweep, and Jorge Campillo, a surprisingly solid starter thus far, gave up 4 hits and 2 earned in 7 innings pitched. He has a 2.54 ERA on the year.

New York Yankees 10, Pittsburgh Pirates 0: It was just a matter of time before the Yanks got hot, and that time seems to have come. That said, can their hitting keep up with the BoSox and Rays’ pitching?

LA Angels 4, Washington Nationals 5: A win like this can make Washington’s season. They’re not going anywhere, they aren’t any good, and beating one of the best teams in the AL at home is a positive sign for a team ridden with injuries.

Seattle Mariners 2, New York Mets 8: The only bright thing about this season for the Mariners is that Richie Sexson will no longer be in Seattle, and neither will Adrian Beltre.

Tampa Bay Rays 15, Florida Marlins 3: Every time I see their record, I have to pinch myself. At 46-31, no one saw the Rays being this good this early.

Baltimore Orioles 4, Chicago Cubs 7: Best team in baseball? Maybe. The Cubs jumped to a 4-0 lead, and never looked back after.

Texas Rangers 3, Houston Astros 2: At a time, it looked as if Houston may be a playoff caliber team. Now it looks as if they’re anything but.

Minnesota Twins 9, San Diego Padres 3: The Twins are a surprising 41-36, and very much alive in the thick of the race in the AL Wild Card.

Chicago White Sox 0, LA Dodgers 5: Eric Stults pitched nine scoreless innings, only giving up 4 hits, and is now 2-0 on the year with a .60 ERA. I know it’s early, but the guy looks awful good.

Arizona Diamondbacks 0, Boston Red Sox 5: The D’Backs started as one of the best teams in baseball. Then they got swept by the Cubs, and now they’re reeling.

San Francisco Giants 4, Cleveland Indians 1: Speaking of teams that came into the season thought as one of the best in the Bigs. There’s now rumors that C.C. Sabathia is on the trading block — oh no.

St. Louis Cardinals 7, Detroit Tigers 8: My early-season-World-Series prediction is starting to pan out, in a kinda-kind of way. They’re only five games back of the White Sox, which is one Ozzie Fit away from imploding.

Cincinnati Reds 6, Toronto Blue Jays 5: The Blue Jays have great pitching, but don’t get hitting when they pitch. Then when they hit, they can’t seem to get pitching, either.

Colorado Rockies 2, Kansas City Royals 4: Colorado better win 20-somethin’ straight again to have any hope of a World Series.

Philadelphia Phillies 4, Oakland A’s 0: Oakland’s a great pitching team but can’t hit. And the Phillies can hit, and they can sometimes pitch, as last night showed.

I don’t have anything to link it to, but the ESPN Ticker is announcing that Jermaine O’Neal has been sent to the Raptors for TJ Ford, Rasho Nesterovic, and a first round draft pick. I’ll follow up with more as it becomes official, but the early indicator is that Toronto got the best of this one — they’ll have one of the best front-lines in basketball with Bosh and O’Neal, and they’ve got plenty of roleplayers off the bench who can come in and contribute at the point. More on this later.

I’m not much of a college baseball fan, but I’ll probably be watching this game tonight. No, I’m not one of these people that tunes in so he can say he saw the final game and the champion, but I am the kind of person that will watch to make sure UGA doesn’t win. I live in Georgia, where every UGA Bandwagoner is present, and seeing them win a World Series and start the football season pre-season No. 1 will make me pretty sick.

That said, Fresno St. is up 2-0, but UGA just hit a triple on a ball that should have been caught. Then again, given this is the College World Series, balls that are supposed to be routine become pretty complex given the skill set. It’s hard for me to imagine how some of these players are ever drafted.

This is Frank Caliendo, who had a terrible show on TBS but a rather surprisingly good impression of John Madden. And though he’s clearly going over the top with some of the things that Madden would say, it wouldn’t be too unrealistic to hear something like this coming from our favorite Fat Man in the announcer’s booth.

Jimmy Johns, a former Alabama running back that had been moved to linebacker this spring, has now been moved off the team due to his recent drug arrest, in which he has been charged with five felony counts of cocaine distribution, and a sixth, additional charge for possession of ecstacy.

“This type of behavior obviously will not be tolerated, and he is no longer a part of our program,” Saban said in a statement.

It’s good to see that Saban is really cleaning up the program he plans on leaving in a year. That said, there’s an asterisk next to this policy: It’s unacceptable if you’re a three star player out of high school. Now if you’ve got five stars to your name? Sell on, sell on.