New York Mets 7, Philadelphia Phillies 8: It’s very, very hard to get up 7-0 on your opponent and then lose, but the Mets found a way. It took 13 innings, but if there’s ever That Game in the middle of a season that separates whether a team makes the playoffs or not, this may very well be it. New York might have this loss lingering for a while.

Chicago Cubs 14, Pittsburgh Pirates 9: The Cubs can hit, they can pitch, and if they can get over this curse thing, they should be in the World Series.

LA Dodgers 1, Washington Nationals 2: The Dodgers better get it together fast. Thankfully for them Arizona lost, but they’re still three games back.

Florida Marlins 9, Atlanta Braves 10: The Marlins are starting to fade as was expected, but you’ve gotta give this club some credit for being in it this long.

Cincinnati Reds 2, Houston Astros 1: Bronson Arroyo is actually starting to look like a real pitcher again. He pitched a complete game in this one and got the win.

Milwaukee Brewers 12, St. Louis Cardinals 0: Milwaukee’s pulling away from St. Louis, and the Cardinals Wild Card chances are getting dimmer and dimmer.

Arizona Diamondbacks 2, San Diego Padres 9: It’s a tough loss for the D’Backs, but the Dodgers lost, too, so no ground was lost.

Colorado Rockies 7, San Francisco Giants 2: There will be no late season rally from Colorado this year.

Chicago White Sox 8, Baltimore Orioles 3: The race between the White Sox and Twins is starting to get interesting, but it may simmer down. I don’t know how many, but the Twins have got something like 20 of their next 25 games on the road.

Cleveland Indians 10, Detroit Tigers 4: I know it would’ve been a long shot, but had they kept Sabathia, and with their recent surge, would the Indians be in this thing?

Boston Red Sox 7, New York Yankees 3: If the Yanks don’t take the next two in this series, you can pretty much count them as dead this year.

Toronto Blue Jays 6, Tampa Bay Rays 2: It’s a set back, but they’ve got the best record in baseball, and it’s going ot be hard for the Sox to catch ‘em.

Texas Rangers 2, Kansas City Royals 1: I feel like every year we think the Rangers year may be next year, and then they put together similar success from the previous season. But seriously: Next year this team could be dangerous.

Oakland A’s 1, LA Angels 5: They don’t have the best record in baseball anymore, but it’s hard to stay motivated when you’re up by about 3,000 games out West.

Minnesota Twins 2, Seattle Mariners 3: Maybe the Mariners just have the Twins number. For whatever reason, Minnesota just can’t seem to beat Seattle.

Florida Marlins 8, NY Mets 2: Don’t look now, but the Marlins are keeping pace. It’s kind of scary how this team always seems to have nothing but always seems to do well with it.

Houston Astros 13, Cincinnati Reds 4: The Reds are just pitiful right now. Pitiful.

Washington Nationals 4, Milwaukee Brewers 5: It took a walk off in the 13th, but the Brew-Crew will take it.

San Diego Padres 16, Colorado Rockies 7: I’m guessing the Rockies don’t have the magic in ‘em this year like they did last year.

Pittsburgh Pirates 3, Philadelphia Phillies 6: To quote Jimmy Rollins, this seems to be the class of the NL East for the second year in a row.

LA Dodgers 4, San Francisco Giants 5: When you’re chasing the D’Backs, you’ve gotta beat teams like SF.

Atlanta Braves 1, Arizona D’Backs 6: Brandon Webb is now 17-4 with a 2.88 ERA. If it wasn’t for him, this team wouldn’t be anywhere near being in the running. Can we just go ahead and hand him the Cy Young?

St. Louis Cardinals 2, Chicago Cubs 6: Ryan Dempster pitched at home, which means a win for the Cubs.

Oakland A’s 1, Detroit Tigers 6: With four hitters over .300, you’d think the Tigers would have a better record than this.

Cleveland Indians 4, Toronto Blue Jays 0: Cliff Lee pitched eight innings, lowering his ERA to a 2.45. He’s 13-2 on the year.

Texas Rangers 15, Baltimore Orioles 7: Josh Hamilton hit his 28th homer of the year. The kid can sure swing the bat.

Boston Red Sox 5, Chicago White Sox 6: Ken Griffey wasn’t playing, but the ChiSox still got the W.

Minnesota Twins 4, Kansas City Royals 5: You have to start wondering what kind of team the Twins really are. One second they’re looking dominant — the next they’re dropping two of three to the Mariners and losing to the Royals.

New York Yankees 3, LA Angels 4: Mariano Rivera blew this one, surprisingly.

Tampa Bay Rays 11, Seattle Mariners 3: The Rays are slowly walking away with the AL East.

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.

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.

Atlanta Braves 2, Chicago Cubs 7: Jeff Bennett started for the Braves and lasted only two innings after giving up seven earned. Soriana was smacked in the hand with a pitch and will be out six weeks for the Cubs.

Washington Nationals 1, Pittsburgh Pirates 3: Sadly, the Nats are only about six games behind the Braves right now. Let’s go, Atlanta, let’s go.

St. Louis Cardinals 10, Cincinnati Reds 0: Braden Looper pitched a complete game shut out, giving up only 3 hits while throwing only 98 pitches.

Arizona Diamondbacks 3, New York Mets 5: Carlos Beltran had a 13th inning walk-off to end this one.

Philadelphia Phillies 2, Florida Marlins 6: Cole Hammels pitched a gem, but Dan Uggla’s ninth inning grand slam lifted the Marlins over the Phillies.

Milwaukee Brewers 10, Houston Astros 6: Surprisngly, the Astros are third in the NL in batting average at .264.

San Francisco Giants 0, Colorado Rockies 1: This would probably be a pretty boring game to watch; thankfully, no one did.

LA Dodgers 1, San Diego Padres 4: The Padres are now 29-38, and after a horrible start, they’re actually beginning to climb up the ladder.

Seattle Mariners 2, Toronto Blue Jays 1: Felix Hernandez gave up 4 hits and 0 earned; the guy’s the only bright spot on this team. He’s now 5-5, but his ERA is a miniscule 2.81.

Tampa Bay Rays 2, LA Angels 4: I didn’t expect the Angels to be this good at the beginning of the season, but they’re starting to turn some heads.

Baltimore Orioles 3, Boston Red Sox 6: Is there much doubt the Red Sox will represent the AL in the World Series again this year?

Minnesota Twins 8, Cleveland Indians 5: The Indians continue to slide. It’s just a matter of time before they turn it on, but the way they’re going, that time might be getting too late.

Chicago White Sox 1, Detroit Tigers 5: Speaking of turning it on, Detroit needs to get something going. This is a start.

Texas Rangers 11, Kansas City Royals 5: Remember when the Royals were 4-0? Me neither.

New York Yankees 4, Oakland A’s 8: Another example of strong pitching beating strong hitting.

In another pointless report that won’t land anyone in jail and won’t keep anyone out of the Hall of Fame, Barry Bonds took steroids. I don’t know how official the report is — it’s Valentine’s Day, I’ve got work tomorrow; I’m really not that concerned about it — but ESPN is reporting that Bonds failed a steroids test in 2001, just before he broke the single season home run record.

The allegation came in a legal filing in his steroid perjury case that referred to Bonds’ long-time trainer, Greg Anderson.

“At trial, the government’s evidence will show that Bonds received steroids from Anderson in the period before the November 2001 positive drug test, and that evidence raises the inference that Anderson gave Bonds the steroids that caused him to test positive in November 2001,” U.S. Attorney Joseph Russoniello wrote.

This story will bring Greg Anderson back into the case, who I believe is still serving some time in jail. A part of me wonders: Who loves who more? Roger with Debbie Clemens, or Anderson with Barry Bonds?

It’s not all that breaking news — I consider news breaking when it was unexpected, starting, whatever — but it is pretty big news. We’ve all known Barry Bonds has been taking steroids for a while, but we’ve had to argue with every Giants fan who says, “Well, there’s no proof.” Forget Victor Conte and the fact that his personal trainer refuses on testifying and instead sits in jail. There’s no proof. Well, maybe until now. Bonds, my friends, has been indicted.

Barry Bonds was indicted Thursday for perjury and obstruction of justice, charged with lying when he told a federal grand jury that he did not knowingly use performance-enhancing drugs.

“During the criminal investigation, evidence was obtained including positive tests for the presence of anabolic steroids and other performance enhancing substances for Bonds and other athletes,” the indictment reads.

He is also charged with lying that Anderson never injected him with steroids.

“Greg wouldn’t do that,” Bonds testified in December 2003 when asked if Anderson ever gave him any drugs that needed to be injected. “He knows I’m against that stuff.”

The San Francisco fans will say it’s just an indictment, and this doesn’t mean anything. It’s the same thing Atlanta fans (like msyelf) said when Michael Vick was indicted.

I think we’ve all seen how that turned out.

Time for all your buddies to roll over on you, Barry. Number 7’s waitin’ on ya.

And I mean that. If I had the kind of money to blow 750 grand on a ball, I would (unfortunately I don’t have the kind of money to blow $7.50 on a ball). And I’d do exactly what Marc Ecko did, leaving it up to the fans to see what happens to Barry’s 756th home run ball. The votes were tallied, and they’re in: The ball will have an asterisk branded on it.

Ecko said he believed the vote to brand the ball showed people thought “this was shrouded in a chapter of baseball history that wasn’t necessarily the clearest it could be.”

Ecko, whom Bonds called “an idiot” last week, had the winning bid Sept. 15 in the online auction for the ball that Bonds hit Aug. 7 to break Hank Aaron’s record of 755 home runs. The final selling price was $752,467, well above most predictions that assumed Bonds’ status as a lightning rod for the steroids debate in baseball would depress the value.

I can’t imagine Major League Baseball to have a ball with an asterisk on it in the Hall of Fame, but if they want, that’s probably the price they’re going to have to pay. You know Barry’s really been put in his place when all he can come back with is: “Idiot.” Nice, Barry. Nice.

As we all know, even if it wasn’t posted here, Barry Bonds has indeed broken the home run record. I’m glad it’s over; watching every San Francisco game over the last month has been an endless nag I hope to never again endure.

Anyway, the fan who caught the ball was a college kid who grew up around Shea Stadium. He had a bloody face, got all messed up, but, ya know, caught the ball.

“I won the lottery,” Murphy told The Daily News in a story posted on its Web site Wednesday. “I’m scraped up but nothing serious.”

Murphy said the ball was “under lock and key.”

“I’m going to be smart about what I do with it,” he said. “Funny enough, I’m only keeping 51 percent of what the ball brings.”

Murphy said the rest would go to a friend who went with him to the game, wearing an Alex Rodriguez jersey.

I’m not a greedy person, but I wouldn’t give half my money to any friend, let alone one who wears an Alex Rodriguez jersey around town. . . he’d be fortunate if I paid for his cab-fare home.