Dustin Pedroia singled off the Wall in his first at-bat, but was thrown out at second base. (In case you were wondering, Damon averaged six assists a year in his four seasons with the Sox.) Pedroia nudged his average up to .326. In Minnesota, Joe Mauer is 0-for-1 against Brandon Duckworth of the Royals, dropping his average to .329.

There have been some great come-from-behind batting title stories, but I haven’t seen anything that can touch this story, as offered by Joe Posnanski, of the home-stretch battle between Bill Madlock and Ken Griffey, Sr. 

Let’s put it this way: the Big Red Machine Reds had no particular love for the man known as Mad Dog. 

So, Pedroia edges slightly closer in his race, while Alex Rodriguez just popped out to short, meaning that at this moment (pending his at-bat as the cleanup hitter in the bottom of this inning), Kevin Youkilis is your American League slugging leader, with a .573 mark just ahead of A-Rod’s .572.