Two days ago, a difficult month and a half came to an end in the happiest way possible for Dustin Pedroia. On July 6, Pedroia rushed out of the Red Sox clubhouse roughly an hour before a game against the Oakland A’s because his wife Kelli had gone into labor prematurely. On Tuesday, he rushed home from Toronto to be with Kelli as she delivered their first child. They named him Dylan.

“I mean, it’s awesome,” Pedroia said after rejoining the team for Thursday night's game. “It's a great feeling when he looks at you, you know you’re in charge. You've got to give him the best support you can. I don't really know what I'm doing, but it's been fun the first couple days.”

Before Pedroia reached Kelli’s side, he made a hectic race from the team hotel in Toronto to Mass. General.

“She called me about 9:30,” Pedroia said. “I didn't even know what the heck to think. I called Jack [McCormick], our traveling secretary, and he got me on the next flight out of here. I made it by 20 minutes.

“I've been there with her the whole time, all the tough times, so I definitely wanted to make sure I was there in the end.

“She was hurting pretty bad. You know, and then I got on the flight. I called and the doctor answered again. I'm like, Jesus, can I talk to her? I don't know how she's doing. The doctor said she was doing great and hurry up and get here. I got there as fast as I could.

“I jumped in a cab. The cab driver wanted to talk about baseball and I'm like, ‘Dude, I will give you $100 to get me to Mass. General as fast as possible. So we probably were driving a little bit past the speed limit. But I think everyone understands.”

Pedroia spent two days with Dylan. “He can scream, I’ll tell you,” he said. “Holy cow.”