Tonight marks this All Star game, and this time it matters. Not that I’ll be watching: I’ve got NCAA 2009 for the Xbox 360, and a dynasty with Tennessee seems imminent right now. I don’t really care who wins, but I will go out on a limb and say the AL will take the crown, since they’ve won, like, the last six or eight in a row. I can’t really remember how many, but that goes to show how little I care.

We’re at the All Star break now. Here’s how the games went heading into it.

Houston Astros 5, Washington Nationals 0: I never thought I’d be worried about the Nationals catching my Braves. Sadly, I’m worried.

Arizona Diamondbacks 3, Philadelphia Phillies 6: The Phillies haven’t played their best baseball, yet they’ve still got a firm grip on first place in the NL East.

St. Louis Cardinals 11, Pittsburgh Pirates 6: Outside of the Rays, are the Cards the first half surprise of the year?

Cincinnati Bengals 2, Milwaukee Brewers 3: The Cubs are 5 games up, but with the addition of CC Sabathia, you’ve gotta imagine the NL Central race will be a fun one to watch.

San Francisco Giants 4, Chicago Cubs 2: I doubt they wanted to lose heading into the break — and to the Giants, no less — but they can’t complain too much about how the first half of their season has gone.

Atlanta Braves 12, San Diego Padres 3: A prime example of two teams not living up to expectations.

Florida Marlins 1, LA Dodgers 9: Who would have thought the Marlins would have 50 wins at the break? Not me.

Colorado Rockies 0, New York Mets 7: The Mets are really, really hot right now.

Tampa Bay Rays 2, Cleveland Indians 5: The Rays are really, really cold right now.

Minnesota Twins 2, Detroit Tigers 4: It’s not where they wanted to be, but given their early season struggles, the Tigers are probably happy about being .500 heading into the break.

New York Yankees 1, Toronto Blue Jays 4: AJ Burnett is finally starting to play to his potential.

Baltimore Orioles 1, Boston Red Sox 2: The Red Sox just find way after way to win ball games.

Seattle Mariners 4, Kansas City Royals 3: This one was probably fun to watch. Two teams going absolutely nowhere.

Chicago White Sox 11, Texas Rangers 12: Every game the Rangers are involved in, they seem to put up mounds and mounds of points.

LA Angels 4, Oakland A’s 3: They rallied in the ninth, scoring two to win the game, and the Angels have to be happy about being tied for the best record in baseball.

St. Louis Cardinals 2, Philadelphia Phillies 0: Cole Hamels had a solid start, going 7 innings and only giving up 2 runs on 3 hits, but his counterpart, Joel Pineiro, pitched 6 innings only giving up 5 hits and zero runs.

Houston Astros 3, Pittsburgh Pirates 4: The Astros are reeling, and reeling fast. Over .500 not long ago, they’re now 9 games under.

Arizona Diamondbacks 2, Washington Nationals 0: Brandon Webb got his 13th win of the season, and may be well on his way to another Cy Young.

San Francisco Giants 0, New York Mets 7: The Mets are getting hot, and are starting to play ball the way everyone thought they would at the beginning of the season.

Colorado Rockies 3, Milwaukee Brewers 7: It was the debut of CC Sabathia, who gave up two earned but did walk five. Maybe some first game jitters.

Cincinnati Reds 3, Chicago Cubs 7: The Cubs just got Rich Harden. Things are going to be very interesting in the NL Central.

Florida Marlins 1, San Diego Padres 10: This is one of the few times you’ll see San Diego score more than four runs in a single game.

Atlanta Braves 9, Los Angeles Dodgers 3: The Braves need the Mets, Phils, and Marlins to go cold, and they need to get really, really hot. Really, really soon.

Minnesota Twins 5, Boston Red Sox 6: The Red Sox scored four runs in the eighth to rally past the Twins.

Cleveland Indians 2, Detroit Tigers 9: The Indians lost their ninth straight game of the season.

Tampa Bay Rays 0, New York Yankees 5: Scott Kazmir is 7-4 with a 2.69 ERA. When he pitches well, his team just doesn’t hit. He gave up two earned in this one over five innings while striking out nine.

Baltimore Orioles 6, Toronto Blue Jays 7: There was a botched grounder in the ninth that led to the winning run for the Jays.

LA Angels 2, Texas Rangers 3: Josh Hamilton knocked in his 87th RBI. That’s 87, folks, and no, we’re not at the All-Star break yet.

Chicago White Sox 8, Kansas City Royals 7: The Chi-Sox continue to roll.

Seattle Mariners 0, Oakland A’s 2: Did the A’s already give up on this season by dealing Harden? At 49-41, you’d think they could’ve made a push.

I took a vacation over the 4th, but am back now, and hope to get back to the site. Here’s some scores from yesterday.

Washington Nationals 5, Cincinnati Reds 3: Adam Dunn blasted his 22nd homer of the year. The guy can’t hit on average, but he can sure smash the ball deep.

New York Mets 4, Philadelphia Phillies 2: As well as the Phillies hit as a team, they don’t have a single player that’s batting above .300. Kinda odd, given their record and their way of putting up runs. The Mets scored two in the 12th inning to take this one.

Pittsburgh Pirates 6, Milwaukee Brewers 11: The Brew-Crew just acquired C.C. Sabathia, which should make things interesting.

Florida Marlins 10, Colorado Rockies 5: Florida’s teetering at the .500 mark. The experts say they’ll dip below by the end of the year, but they’ve proven everyone wrong to this point.

Chicago Cubs 7, St. Louis Cardinals 1: Shawn Marshall shut down the Cards, who, despite the loss, have to be happy where they are at this point of the season, 10 games over .500.

Houston Astros 6, Atlanta Braves 7: The game went 17 innings, the longest in Turner Field history. Teixeira’s single in the 17th ended it.

Los Angeles Dodgers 5, San Francisco Giants 3: James Loney had three RBI’s for the Dodgers, who are surging in the NL West.

San Diego Padres 2, Arizona Diamondbacks 3: Randy Johnson had 10 K’s for the D’Backs.

Texas Rangers 11, Baltimore Orioles 10: Oddly, this looked more like the score of a Houston Texans/Baltimore Ravens matchup.

Kansas City Royals 2, Tampa Bay Rays 9: The Rays continue to impress. If you’re not rooting for this team, there’s something wrong with you (that, or you’re a Boston fan, which means yes, there’s something wrong with you).

Oakland A’s 3, Chicago White Sox 4: The White Sox are 51-37; imagine if they meet up with the Cubbies in the Series? Would be very interesting. . . .

Cleveland Indians 3, Minnesota Twins 4: After dealing Sabathia to the Brew-Crew, the Indians have officially called it quits on the season.

Toronto Blue Jays 1, LA Angels 7: Jon Garland pitched another gem in this one.

Detroit Tigers 2, Seattle Mariners 1: The Tigers are surging, baby, the Tigers are surging.

Boston Red Sox 4, New York Yankees 5: It took 10 innings, but the Yanks bested the Red Sox, and now it’s not just the Rays that Boston’s worried about in the AL East.

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.

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.

Chicago Cubs 3, LA Dodgers 7: It was the second straight game the Dodgers took from the Cubs, who needed to be cooled off at some point.

Philadelphia Phillies 6, Atlanta Braves 2: To make matters worse, Chipper Jones, who’s hitting .420 right now, hurt his quad and will be out a few games.

St. Louis Cardinals 8, Houston Astros 4: Miguel Tejada hit his seventh home run of the season, down from what he did many years ago, but we can chalk that up to new steroid testing.

Arizona Diamondbacks 4, Pittsburgh Pirates 3: Chris Snyder homered in the nith inning to put hte D’Backs up, then threw out Luis Rivas trying to steal second to stop the Pirates last attempted rally.

San Francisco Giants 6, Washington Nationals 0: Not even people in Washington or San Fran watched this one.

Cincinnati Red 7, Florida Marlins 8: Scott Olsen pitched five innings and gave up no runs, but Cincinnati did a good job of coming back, falling just short in this one.

Milwaukee Brewers 2, Colorado Rockies 7: People are waiting for the Rockies to wake up; maybe this game will help.

New York Mets 1, San Diego Padres 2: Right when it looked like New York was gaining some momentum, they lose back-to-back games to San Diego, which, outside of losing maybe back-to-back against the Nats, is about the biggest momentum killer.

Kansas City Royals 11, New York Yankees 12: The Yankees bats are definitely waking up.

Baltimore Orioles 9, Toronto Blue Jays 5: The Orioles are a game above .500, and I don’t have the stats to back this up, but this has to be the first time they’ve been so more than 60 games into a season in a long, long time.

Seattle Mariners 3, Boston Red Sox 11: Can someone just throw in the towel for Seattle, already?

Cleveland Indians 4, Detroit Tigers 8: Edgar Renteria went 3-4, raising his average to .271. When they acquired the guy, they thought they were getting the .330 hitter he was with the Braves.

Minnesota Twins 2, Chicago White Sox 11: Just when you think Ol’ Ozzie has gone off his rocker and is on the verge of being fired, his team goes on a magnificent winning streak and makes everyone forget.

Tampa Bay Rays 5, Texas Rangers 4: They didn’t fair well against Boston, but Tampa’s still primed to make a playoff run with their youth, timely hitting, and young pitching.

LA Angels 5, Oakland A’s 3: I’d be lying if I said I foresaw the Angels being 39-24 after 63 games.

Cincinnati Reds 0, Philadelphia Philles 5: Cole Hamels pitched a complete game, 3 hit shutout. The kid’s the real deal.

St. Louis Cardinals 4, Washington Nationals 1: Albert Pujols hit his 15th homer of the year.

Florida Marlins 5, Atlanta Braves 7: Chipper Jones hit his 400th homer of his career, but was also 4-5 on the night, raising his batting average to .418; it’s time to start talking MVP.

Houston Astros 3, Pittsburgh Pirates 4: Jason Michaels had 3 of Pittsburgh’s 4 RBI’s.

New York Mets 1, San Diego Padres 2: Any loss hurts, but it especially hurts when the bases are loaded, it’s the bottom of the ninth, and you hit the batter to walk in the run. Ouch.

Chicago Cubs 5, LA Dodgers 4: At 39-22, the Cubs are thinking World Series. Serious question: Would Bartman dare go to a playoff game?

Toronto Blue Jays 8, New York Yankees 9: There were 23 hits and 17 runs, but the Yanks managed 3 runs in the ninth to take the game.

Baltimore Orioles 3, Minnesota Twins 2: Adam Jones hit a homer in the 7th to put the Orioles on top by one, ultimately the winning run of the game. He then went to a booby-club and beat up some strippers.

Tampa Bay Devil Rays 1, Boston Red Sox 7: This was supposed to be a good series. Thus far, the Red Sox have outscored the Rays 11-2, and players are now throwing punches.

Cleveland Indians 4, Texas Rangers 9: The Rangers are a quiet 31-31 on the year. Not bad, given the talent.

Kansas City Royals 2, Chicago White Sox 6: They’re quietly moving up the rankings as everyone else pays attention to the Cubs.

Florida Marlins 6, Atlanta Braves 4: They not only lost John Smoltz for the year, but they also blew a two run lead in the eighth inning. Given the terrible road record, winning those games at home is pretty imperative.

Arizona Diamondbacks 1, Milwaukee Brewers 10: This one was a route. I picked Arizona to represent in the NL in the World Series, and I still feel okay about the pick, but jeez. . . these guys just can’t seem to win anymore, winning only 4 of their last 16 games.

Colorado Rockies 2, LA Dodgers 1: The Dodgers have a way of going hot, cold, hot, cold, hot, cold, and right now they seem pretty cold.

New York Mets 5, SF Giants 3: I think New York may have buried this team a little early. With the return of Pedro, the pitching should get better, and it’s only a matter of time before they start hitting the ball.

Cincinnati Reds 2, Philadelphia Phillies 0: I know Josh Hamilton is doing a sick job with the bat in Texas, but at what point do we say the Rangers lost that deal that sent Edinson Volquez to Cincinnati, where he’s now 8-2 with a league best 1.35 ERA.

Houston Astros 2, Pittsburgh Pirates 5: Roy Oswalt is now 4-6 on the year. What a difference a couple of seasons can make.

Chicago Cubs 1, San Diego Padres 2: The Cubs had won 9 straight, so losing the 10th isn’t bad, unless, of course, it’s to the lowly Padres.

Detroit Tigers 2, Oakland A’s 10: At some point, I’ll just have to accept that my World Series pick from the AL isn’t going to be there.

LA Angels 5, Seattle Mariners 4: Remember when people said Seattle would be good this year?

Tampa Bay Rays 1, Boston Red Sox 5: Is there a better story in baseball that isn’t in Florida? The Rays were in first — now second, with the loss — and the Marlins continue to keep pace with the Phillies in the NL East. Don’t be surprised if Tampa takes the series; they were facing Josh Beckett, who’s filthy, so I can’t really blame them for this loss.

Toronto Blue Jays 1, New York Yankees 5: Mike Mussina has been the one positive for the Yanks in this negative season, raising his record to 9-4 on the year.

Cleveland Indians 15, Texas Rangers 9: Cleveland’s comin’ back. They’re comin’ back. I think this team will be like last year’s Rockies, a team that has a sluggish first half and turns it up the latter part of the year.

Baltimore Orioles 5, Minnesota Twins 7: The Twins are a surprise; I wonder how many they’d have had they held onto Santana.

Kansas City Royals 4, Chicago White Sox 6: The toast of Chicago is the Cubs right now. But don’t sleep on the ChiSox.

Chicago Cubs 3, Cincinnati Reds 5: Our beloved, cursed Cubbies were on the cover of SI this month, so it’s just a matter of time before they tank it. Losing to the Reds is a start.

New York Mets 1, LA Dodgers 5: The Mets were supposed to be THE TEAM in the NL, and they’re not looking that way quite yet; their pitching hasn’t been bad (6th in the NL), but they’re 13th in the NL in hitting, which wasn’t expected with the lineup they’ve got. The Dodgers are streaking, meanwhile, and Rafael Furcal is hitting .366 in the leadoff spot for the Boys in Blue.

Baltimore Orioles 1, Oakland A’s 2: It took 10 innings, Emil Brown’s single up the middle with a runner on second proved to be the game-winning hit. Huston Street blew the save opportunity (his ERA is now a 4.11, a stark contrast from last year), but Joey Devine came in in the 10th and shut the O’s down.

Boston Red Sox 6, Detroit Tigers 3: Just when you think the Tigers are getting the hang of things, they lose again. It seems like they’re on another slide, but we’ll see. Losing to Dice-K when he’s sick, and they’ve got the lineup they do, is inexcusable.