It seemed like just yesterday that Red Sox hitters were persevering through an epic 31-inning scoreless streak against the Yankees, and then wilting in the Texas heat with players like Brian Anderson, Casey Kotchman and Jason Varitek rounding out the bottom of their challenged lineup.

What a difference 10 days can make.

The Boston 25-man roster has regained Kevin Youkilis from a five-game suspension in tandem, enjoyed a return to good health for J.D. Drew, and with the additions of Victor Martinez and Alex Gonzalez through trades before and after the July 31 trade deadline, a shallow lineup prone to slumps now seems distant in the Sox' rearview mirror.

“I have faith in every single guy that we put in that lineup to hit,” said Sox batting coach Dave Magadan, speaking of the lean times. “But it’s nice to have the Big Boys back in there.”

The Red Sox offense had mustered an American League-worst .253 batting average through the first 15 games of August, and averaged a measly 4.67 runs per game during that time span. That stretch of bat-swinging futility reached a sagging nadir when an undermanned group of Boston hitters couldn’t do much of anything against the Texas Rangers' pitching staff at The Ballpark in Arlington.

Since the Tuesday following that disappointing weekend in Texas, the Sox offense has busted out for a .314 average (81-for-258) and is scoring close to 10 runs per game (9.29 runs per game to be exact) in the seven subsequent games -- and finally seems to be getting all of its offensive pieces back together again.

The key to this Boston bat offensive revival?

It’s been placing the full Sox batting order together one through nine, sometimes lifting Jason Varitek out of the lineup and then watching formidable, professional hitters like Mike Lowell and J.D. Drew round out the bottom third of the lineup card along with Alex Gonzalez.

That troika of Lowell, Drew and Gonzalez went a combined 5-for-11 with five runs, two doubles, two home runs and five runs batted in during Boston’s 12-8 Monday night win over the Chicago White Sox at the Fens.

That is otherwise known as doing some damage.

Nowhere was there a Chris Woodward or Brian Anderson in sight at the bottom of a skinny Sox order. Boston has been able to flaunt the vaunted lineup length that’s made it so offensively successful over the last handful of years, and that has restored the offensive identity to which the team is accustomed.

“I think our offense was at a point a few weeks ago where maybe we were questioning things a little bit, but we’re swinging the bats really, really well right now,” said Mike Lowell, who blasted a three-run home to help power Boston’s offense on Monday night and has scalded the ball to a .372 clip over his last 11 games. “What we’re seeing now is a strength that we thought that we’d have one through nine from the very beginning of the year.

“Now we can get those two-out runs, we can make those innings long and we can really make those pitchers work.”  

During the aforementioned seven-game stretch against the Blue Jays, Yanks and White Sox, the numbers don’t lie for the “bottom” of the order. Lowell is hitting .363 (8-for-22) with two home runs, seven runs scored and has driven in six, Drew is hitting .350 (7-for-20) with three runs, three home runs and five runs batted in and Gonzalez is hitting .296 (8-for-27) with six runs scored and has driven in three out of the No. 9 spot in Boston’s batting order.

One need only ask White Sox starter Jose Contreras how quickly things can unravel against the suddenly potential Boston attack, as a strong top-to-bottom attack forced the venerable Cuban into 84 pitches through less than three innings of work. Contreras finally broke down with a disastrous third inning that included a hit batsmen, a walk, an error by the pitcher, a wild pitch and then finally Lowell's three-run bomb into Lansdowne Street that served as the straw that broke the pitcher’s back.

“You have to have some patience,” said Sox hitting Dave Magadan. “Everybody wants a team to average six runs a game through the year, and then have that ability to score six runs each and every game during a season. You’re just not going to do that.

“You’re going to have different cycles during the year where you score a lot of runs. Right now we’ve got everybody in the lineup and we’re not suspended or on the DL. It’s a nice little lineup we have right now. When you have J.D. Drew hitting eighth, that’s a nice little bottom-of-the-lineup with Alex also swing the bat well. Take J.D. for instance. He’s a guy that is going to grind out at bats, take pitches and really make somebody work. That’s frustrating for a pitcher that’s already gone 1-7 in the lineup, and then they’ve got to deal with J.D. hitting eighth. It helps turn the lineup around, and it helps tax the pitchers – especially the starters.”

It remains to be seen how long the Sox can trot out an offensive lineup card with names like Lowell and Drew guarding the very bottom end of the batting order, but there’s no denying the importance of that bottom third’s presence during the last two week batting boom.

Rather than being the hunted, the Sox have finally flipped their lineup around and begun hunting for the heads of starting pitchers by the fifth or sixth inning each and every night. The Big Boys are most definitely back.