Boston’s offense, which has been strong from top to bottom, looks a lot like the 2003 juggernaut.

We haven’t seen anything like this for a long time.

Jackie Bradley Jr., who has batted ninth for most of the season, has a 21-game hitting streak and has driven in 30 runs as part of a deep Red Sox lineup. The Associated Press

The Boston Red Sox arrived in Kansas City this week after one of their most remarkable homestands of the past 10 years. The Sox won six of seven games against Oakland and Houston at Fenway Park, scoring 73 runs in the process.

Seventy-three runs. Think about that for a moment. That’s an average of more than 10 runs a game. The Sox hadn’t don’t that since 2003, when they scored 75 games over a seven-game stretch.

That 2003 team was an offensive juggernaut. While we all remember the 2004 team that finally brought a World Series title to Boston, it was that team’s predecessor that set the pace offensively. The 2003 Red Sox set a franchise record for home runs in a season with 238, and set a major league record with 649 extra-base hits.

The 2016 team has some similarities to that club. This year’s team has the same philosophy of “passing the baton.” Established stars on this team don’t feel pressure to deliver a big blow every time they’re at bat because there is a belief that if they get on base someone else will step up and drive them in.

In 2003, Bill Mueller won the American League batting title with a .326 average – while hitting ninth spot in the batting order. Manager Grady Little saw no reason to move Mueller out of that spot, since he produced so well and often began rallies that would carry around to the heart of the order.

Jackie Bradley Jr. arrived in Kansas City with the longest hitting-streak in baseball this season. The bulk of his 21-game streak came while batting ninth. More impressively, JBJ was among the league leaders in RBI, meaning the guys ahead of him (the seventh and eighth hitters in the lineup) were getting on base.

Bradley was hitting too well to leave in the ninth spot. After filling in for Dustin Pedroia (batting second) on Saturday he was moved to the sixth spot for Sunday’s game. Hard to leave a guy hitting .402 over the past three weeks at the bottom of the order.

The Sox are doing a lot of little things right, but they aren’t afraid to take a healthy cut at the plate. When the homestand ended, the Sox had homered at least once in each of their last 16 games, the second-longest streak by a Red Sox team in the past 100 years (the 1996 team homered in 19 straight games).

All of this offense has been absolutely necessary for Boston to stay near the top of the American League East. There are still issues to be worked out in the pitching staff. Clay Buchholz had another tough outing Saturday, and is literally hanging in the rotation on a start-to-start basis. No one was talking about that after the game Saturday because David Ortiz tied it with a two-out triple in the ninth inning and won it with a double in the 11th.

That’s what good offenses do. They grab your attention at the plate and cover up blemishes on the mound.

Eventually the Sox will have to pitch better if they hope to play baseball deep into October, but thanks to this record-setting production so far they are able to hope a veteran like Buchholz can find his form, and to give a youngster Eduardo Rodriguez more time to develop in Pawtucket.

We’ll be keeping a close eye on what this pitching staff does. For now, all eyes are on the lineup. It’s become a surprise when the team doesn’t put up double-digit runs in a game. It won’t last forever, but it has lasted long enough to make baseball meaningful in Boston once again.

Tom Caron is a studio host for the Red Sox broadcast on NESN. His column appears in the Portland Press Herald on Tuesdays.

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