CHICAGO — Surely the hapless Chicago White Sox can take some of the credit, but the inescapable fact remains: The Red Sox head for the homestretch playing some of their best baseball of the season.

Their timing couldn’t be better.

As a prelude to their three-game showdown with the Yankees that begins tomorrow night, the Red Sox capped a four-game sweep with an 11-1 shellacking of the White Sox, finishing a run that has seen them go 6-1 on this road trip and 11-5 in their last 16 games, creating a 7 ½-game cushion over the second-place Yanks.

“This was a huge series for us,” said second baseman Dustin Pedroia, whose two-out, two-run single in the fifth gave the Sox a lead they wouldn’t relinquish. “We swung the bats well, pitched good and played good defense.”

In suggesting that the Sox “swung the bats well,” Pedroia was surely being diplomatic. The fact is they completely hammered White Sox pitching in the four-game set, scoring 46 runs and reaching double figures in runs in every game.

For the second day in a row, they blasted three homers, including one from J.D. Drew, who hadn’t homered since June 20 and hadn’t homered against an American League team since April 22.

Drew connected against White Sox starter Javier Vazquez in the second, ending a homerless drought that stretched over 51 games and 166 at-bats.

“I’ve been kind of sticking with what I’ve been doing the last couple of weeks,” said Drew. “It felt good. In that situation, I was just trying to slow things down and get a good pitch to hit.”

Bobby Kielty chipped in with a homer — his first since joining the Red Sox and first overall since last Sept. 26 — as did David Ortiz, who had three homers in the series and has five in the last 10 games. In that stretch, Ortiz is hitting .462 (18-for-39) with nine extra-base hits and 16 RBI, bolstering his batting average 13 points to .324.

“This,” said Drew of the weekend romp, “was fun. You’re watching guys run around the bases and you never know when you’re going to get an at-bat.”

Yesterday, for the first time in the series, the Sox failed to bat around in any one inning. But they didn’t stop beating up the White Sox bullpen. In scoring four times in the ninth yesterday, the Sox outscored the White Sox, 21-2, from the seventh inning on in the series.

Every starter except Kevin Youkilis collected at least one hit.

The Sox’ margin for error grew over the weekend while the Yankees were dropping two of their first three games in Detroit. Boston’s lead in the American League hasn’t been this big since Aug. 2.

That should create some breathing room at Yankee Stadium, no?

“That’s not our mentality,” said Francona. “It’s not productive to go into a series [thinking like that]. I don’t think that helps you play good baseball.”

“We have to stay focused,” said catcher Jason Varitek. “We’ve got a month and a few more days left and we have a job to do. We just have to play like we have been playing.”

Now that the White Sox are gone from the schedule, that might be difficult. But with a seven-game advantage in the loss column over the Yankees, the Sox could effectively clinch the division with a strong series this week.

“I don’t think anybody cares [about eliminating the Yankees now],” said Pedroia. “If we go in there and play well, we’ll be fine. If we keep playing the way we are now, we’re going to be fine.”

In their last eight wins, the Sox are averaging 9.6 runs per contest, the kind of production the Yankees were generating earlier this month when they first surged to within four games of the division lead.

Now, it’s the Red Sox’ offense that is flexing its muscles.

“We can’t look forward,” cautioned Varitek.

Yesterday, propelled by the best week they’ve enjoyed in months, it was more fun to look back first.

smcadam@projo.com