JBJ Goes Oppo (AP Photo/Winslow Townson)

The Red Sox beat the first-place Blue Jays 11-4 yesterday, keeping up their torrid offensive pace. They’ve been one of the top two offenses in baseball since August 1. The hometown nine thumped 17 hits off of Blue Jays’ pitching, led by — who else — Jackie Bradley Jr.’s 4-4, four RBI effort. JBJ singled to left, singled to right, homered to left, and doubled to right. He’s using the whole field. He’s hitting fastballs and offspeed stuff. He has the most extra-base hits in baseball since August 1. He’s raised his average .150 points in that time and is now hitting .312. His OPS is now 1.016. He’s Tarzan mandrake Flash Gordon. He’s Bill Shakespeare. He’s Cain, Ulysses, the Flying Dutchmen; he’s Lot in Sodom, Deirdre of The Sorrows, Sweeney in the Nightingales Among Trees. He’s miracle ingredient Z-247. He’s – immense. He’s a real, slam-bang, honest-to-goodness, three-fisted humdinger. He’s a bona fide supraman. There aren’t enough superlatives to describe how well this man is playing right now.

Other highlights from the 17-hit onslaught:

• Every starter had a hit.
• Mookie was 3-5 with two runs scored and an RBI.
• Xander smacked this RBI double.
• Ortiz was 2-4 with two doubles, an RBI, and a walk, and missed #498 by a few feet.
• Travis Shaw was 2-5 with a homer. He really squared the ball up in all five of his ABs.
• Rusney was 2-4 with two runs scored and an RBI.

The “other” top offense in baseball is the Toronto Blue Jays, and Rick Porcello was tasked with shutting them down. For the most part Freddie did just that, surrendering 4 runs, 3 earned in 7.1 innings. He pitched better than the 4 runs would lead you to believe, as he left the game having surrendered only two. The other two runs come plateward after Noe Ramirez surrendered a single to Joey Bats that hit high off the top of the Monster, and is a homerun in every other ballpark in America. The first two runs Porcello surrendered were via the longball, which continues to plague him despite his recent turnaround. Both pitches were left up in the zone, another Porcello bugaboo, but to be fair we are talking about the 2015 Toronto Blue Jays who mash baseballs like Thanksgiving potatoes.

The first dinger was hit by MVP frontrunner Josh Donaldson, his 37th of the year and 100th of his career. His swing is beautifully violent, like a coiled cobra launching a sneak attack on an unsuspecting rodent.

Everything gets uncorked at once in a highly coordinated, sophisticated, and well-located strike.

Notes:

-More good news for the offense: Dustin Pedrioa is aiming to return to the lineup tonight.

-As Lefty pointed out the other day, it’s a little bit ridiculous that the Sox continue to bat JBJ, the hottest hitter in baseball, last in the order. I’m sure their reasoning is 1) you don’t want to change a single thing that is happening right now for fear of losing some of the magic and 2) you definitely want him coming up with men on base because there’s a good chance he’ll drive them in.

-The Sox are now tied for 4th place in the AL East.