Seven Red Sox are headed to the Bronx (by train!) for the All-Star Game. And what better way to arrive at the giant party at the house of the enemy than defending World Champions, back in first place. It's a lot of fun to travel in style like this.

The Sox haven't exactly charged into first place. A combination of the Rays' miserable week (at midnight, the spell may wear off and they change back into the Devil Rays) and the Sox...let's say, surviving....last night's game, 2-1, is what it took.

Daisuke Matsuzaka got his 10th win, but nobody's going to be raving about his performance. He walked five, went to a 3-ball count on everybody (sure seems that way, anyway) and threw 11,450 pitches by our unofficial count. The only thing slower than Dice's pace was Sean Casey, who got nailed trying to stretch out a double, but at least the Sox had fun with him. "I've got to just stay at first. Count my losses and stay at first," he said. "God, is he slow," was Francona's sad assessment.

The only Baltimore run came off Jonathan Papelbon, who then buckled down to pick up his 100th career save. So it's break time, with the Sox ahead of Tampa Bay by half a game, ahead of New York by six, and only a game away from best record in the AL, held by the [Your Municipality Here] Angels. If the season ended now, the Sox would play Chicago in the first round.

Kheli Dube scored the lone goal in the Revolution's 1-0 win over Santos Laguna in Superliga action - a series of matches between MLS squads and top Mexican teams. International relations were not improved by Dube getting kicked in a sensitive area and Sainey Nyassi taking a shot to the nose that got a Santos player kicked out. The Revs play Pachuca C.F. on Wednesday.

Photo by Michael Dwyer/AP.