AL – With all the talk of the Rays stumbling going into the All-Star break, it's the Red Sox who falter out of the gate in the second half, getting swept by the Angels, a team that has beaten them in five out of six meetings this year.  K-Rod may have this single-season saves record wrapped up by August at this rate after picking up his 40th yesterday in the 5-3 win. The Angels put the rally monkey to work, getting three in the 8th to them up to stay… Meanwhile, the concomitant Rays and Red Sox slumps coupled with the Yankees surge you knew was going to happen have put the Bombers within striking distance of the Wild Card after capping a sweep of the A's to go eight games above .500 for the first time this year…Cliff Lee becomes the AL's first 13-game winner, spreading out 11 hits in a complete game victory over the Mariners, who also lost starter David Silva in a development sure to affect their late-season pennant hopes. They had really put themselves in a position for a historic run. Why else would you be 20 games under .500 at the break, right?… The Rangers bounce back from allowing 14 runs to the Twins on Saturday to win – wait, what? -a pitcher's duel on Sunday. Taylor Teagarden, who might be one of Polly Pocket's friends, broke up Scott Baker's perfect game in the 6th, providing the only run support Vicente Padilla would need in blanking Minny 1-0.

NL – The plot thickens in each of the NL division races. Two of the three are tied (even the NL West where you needn't have a better record than the Tigers to contend) and the lead in the other, better one, is separated by two games. The Mets caught the Phillies in the NL East race yesterday by winning their 11th of the last 13, 7-5 in extra innings over the Reds, as the two teams face off for a three-game set in Shea. Naturally, as soon as their bullpen comes together, Billy Wagner falls apart…The Marlins aren't to be forgotten either, winning two of three against Philly over the weekend, including their league-leading ninth walk-off win yesterday,  to pull a half-game out of the top spot… The Dodgers get five runs in the 9th off the Dbacks' Brandon Lyon to beat Arizona 6-5 and tie the NL West race at a gaudy 48-50. The conquering team's race to 78 wins should be thrilling…Ryan Dempster got his first road win in two years by shutting out the Astros yesterday. Glad that's settled. The Cubs probably don't need to end any other draughts this year…Aaron Miles might only have three homers on the season, but two have come in the last week! Power surge! The diminuitive one hit a wall-off gland slam to put the Cards over the Padres 9-5. 

British Open – Another Greg Norman choke job (sorry Gene) leaves the door open for injured Padraig Harrington, who probably won't receive the Tiger Woods heroic treatment for winning hurt. Of course, that treatment involves European models he can't afford. Elsewhere, Michelle Wie is disqualified from the LPGA State Farm Classic for failing to sign her scorecard after the second round. Can you blame her? Those three letters in her last name have to wear the ol' signing hand out.

Instead of the natural course of trending more lesbian, the world of women's golf is getting younger with the news that Michelle Wie's record as the youngest person ever to compete in a pro golfing event has been undercut by an even tinier tyke. I said tyke, not dyke, right? I kid, of course. You don't have to be gay to play women's golf, but it does help if you can crush on other female golfers based on petty grudges.

At 10 years, 3 months and 9 days old, Allisen Corpuz becomes the youngest entrant in a USGA championship event today, at the week-long Women's Public Links Tournament in Erin, Wisc.  Michelle Wie set the previous record, when she played the same event in 2000, at the age of 10 years and 9 months.

But according to Corpuz' father Marcos, there is bad blood between his daughter and Wie, stemming from when Allisen was a spectator at a February LPGA event in Hawaii.

"Michelle Wie wasn’t very nice to the kids at the tournament," he told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "She didn’t seem to want to be around them, so she definitely is not Allisen’s role model . . . Allisen likes Morgan Pressel because she was much friendlier with the kids."

"Waaah, Michelle Wie was too busy being successful and pretty and not making me balloon animals!" Hell hath no fury like a girl golfer something something. Pressel is not a bad looker herself, so at least Corpuz has decent taste on possible scissor sisters, but fondness for children suggests an interest in possibly having them someday. Your icy determination serves you well with the males, Michelle. 

Morgan Pressel has been Michelle Wie's most vocal critic on the LPGA tour.  Probably because Pressel is a female teenage golf prodigy who's actually successful (at 18, she's the youngest woman to win a major) and doesn't get exemptions and break down and cry on the golf course all the time.  And… they'll be playing 72 holes together this weekend at the Evian Masters in France.  Awk-warrrrrrrrd!

Joining Pressel and Wie in the group — making it a threesome, rowr! — will be Gwladys Nocera, and I'm sorry but there must be some mistake.  Gwladys?  What the F?  I'm gonna have to take this one to the Hooked on Phonics Court of Appeals, 'cause I have no idea how to say that.  Gwa…?  G.W. Ladies?

[SPORTSbyBROOKS] 

Michelle Wie had a bad day yesterday:

Wie's woes continued Saturday at the LPGA Championship when she shot an 11-over 83 at Bulle Rock, leaving her in last place by five shots among the 84 players who made the cut and uncertain if she would show up for the final round.

I'd like to remind you that Michelle has expressed interest in competing at PGA events.  Carding 11-over scores for a single round is not going to get you there Miss Wie.  To be fair, Wie has been recovering from a broken left wrist since January:

An LPGA Tour official clarified midway through the back nine that "Rule 88," in which non-tour members are banned for a year if they fail to break 88, would not be an issue because it only applies before the cut is made. A week ago, Wie withdrew at 14 over par with two holes to play with a bad wrist, raising speculation that she was worried about losing the rest of her LPGA Tour schedule with two more bogeys. 

Is failing to shoot an 88 really 'Rule 88'?  If so, that's too perfect to be a coincidence, and it displays clearly that a supreme intelligence designed the Universe.  Anyway, I should have said Wie is "recovering from a broken left wrist".  I'm not criticizing her, even your stalwart assistant editor uses some crutches to get through the day.  Like when I'm late for work on a Sunday morning after a long Saturday night discussing my abhorrence for the designated hitter over many a jar of J.J. & S,  I may have been heard to say that I'm "recovering from influenza". -KD

This is golf's semi- kinda-phenom Michelle Wie at the Spider-Man 3 worldwide premiere.  Must be nice to get invited to worldwide movie premieres in Tokyo as a high school senior.

This is a tough one for me.  I'm definitely not enamored with golf (unless crack and playmates are involved), and I've never been on the Wie bandwagon.  On the other hand, I definitely like underage girls, and Wie looks pretty hot here, so sign me up for the full 18 holes.  Although why she's hanging out with Chewbacca-Wan Kenobi is anybody's guess. 

(Note for the dorks: If you must know, that's Bulgarian sumo wrestler Kotoōshū Katsunori, known in Japan for his "good looks" as — I shit you not — the "David Beckham of Sumo."  Yeah, hubba, hubba.  A perfect nickname from the country that made art forms out of subway-groping and tentacle porn.)