I'm in the Chicago area for the next two weeks for my younger brother's graduation. My whole family went to the Cubs / Red Sox game last night (Tim Wakefield vs. Glendon Rusch), which the Red Sox won easily thanks to the offensive force that is Kevin Youkilis. You might have heard of him as The Greek God of Walks, which he is called in "Moneyball" because of his extremely high OBP's in the minor leagues. Oh, and he was my brother's "player of the game" - we each pick a guy (usually an unknown - it's more interesting that way) that we think is going to have a good game. He picked Youkilis, who was 3-for-5 with a single, double, and HR - I picked Jason DuBois, who was 0-for-4 with an error. Yikes.

Roy Oswalt dominated the Blue Jays last night, allowing 2 hits and 0 walks in 9 shutout innings. I believe that lowered his season ERA to 2.85, which is damn, damn good. Jason Lane continued his recent extra-base-hit barrage with another HR, and Willy Taveras (who has raised his average 50 points in his last 10 games or so) was 3-for-4. I think I already said this, but I I've been a little harsh on Taveras - compared to a guy like Chris Burke, who is 25 and has already had a huge year in AAA, doing what Taveras is doing (hitting .297 / .336 / .392 with 17 SB / 3 CS)at the age of 23 while skipping AAA entirely is impressive.

Well, we're off to breakfast with the folks. The 'Stros start a 3-game set against the Orioles today - we'll see if we can keep that offense in check.