I just got back from a weekend at the Shore Leave Star Trek convention in Baltimore. I'll post a full report on that in the next couple of days. I did want to talk about the Sox weekend in Chicago first.

Teams can turn things around in baseball so quickly. The Sox went from dropping three of four to the Devil Rays to winning two of three from the defending World Series champion White Sox at The Cell (I really hate that name). They nearly swept, but were beaten in 19 innings today, with Papelbon and Timlin both blowing leads - Papelbon in the 9th on a Jermaine Dye homer and Timlin in the 11th after coming in with a two run lead. It's a shame they lost, but I really can't be unhappy taking two out of three from the Pale Hose.

Right now I'm watching the last game before the All Star break, an outstanding duel between Andy Pettite of the Astros and the Cardinals Chris Carpenter. It's 1-0 Cards in the top of the 6th, the difference being an RBI single by (who else?) Albert Pujols.

Along with the Shore Leave report, I'll have my mid-season look at MLB thus far before the second half of the season starts. Stay tuned!