CHICAGO -- A day after Masataka Yoshida¡¯s 30th birthday, when he came up empty in his pursuit of tying Ted Williams for the most consecutive multihit games by a left-handed hitter in Red Sox history, the left fielder got back to business on Sunday.

The one thing Yoshida has made clear through most of his first Major League season is that he can rarely be held down for more than an isolated day or two.

His approach is simply too sound and his swing is too pure.

Yoshida struck at just the right time in Sunday¡¯s 11-5 victory in the rubber match of a three-game series at Wrigley Field, unloading for a two-out, grand slam in the top of the fifth off Cubs All-Star ace Justin Steele.

¡°It's kind of like a video game,¡± winning pitcher Kutter Crawford said of watching Yoshida hit. ¡°He¡¯s unbelievable. He's a great hitter, great teammate, and he's helping the team in a lot of ways.¡±

The floodgates opened when Yoshida tore into a 2-0 fastball on the upper, middle portion of the plate and put it in the basket above the ivy in deep right field to make it 6-0, Red Sox.

It was a tough pill to swallow for Steele, who, with the bases loaded, struck out Rafael Devers and induced Adam Duvall into an infield popup before Yoshida came to the plate and ruined his afternoon.

¡°For me, it¡¯s bases loaded and a 2-0 count. I was trying to get him to roll over a ground ball,¡± said Steele. ¡°The two pitches were pretty competitive and then, 2-0, I just kind of had to throw a strike. I didn¡¯t want to fall behind, 3-0. But, he did what he was supposed to do. That was a tough break. But, things happen. It¡¯s baseball."

Impressively, Yoshida¡¯s OPS is actually higher against lefties (.896) than righties (.877).

Truth be told, Yoshida has handled righties and lefties with routine excellence.

For good measure, Yoshida added to his monster Sunday with a two-run triple against righty reliever Michael Rucker to cap his six-RBI afternoon.

The grand slam was Yoshida¡¯s second. He also hit one on April 23 in Milwaukee, another Sunday in which he also had six RBIs.

Yoshida just keeps on chugging along, as this was his ninth multihit performance over his past 10 games.

¡°Whenever I can hit, I want to hit a lot,¡± said Yoshida.

And so he has. Particularly of late. Over his past 10 games, Yoshida is 20-for-43 with an OPS of 1.245.

While Yoshida is only 315 at-bats into his career, his manager has already run out of adjectives.

¡°He¡¯s good, man. There¡¯s nothing else I can say,¡± said Alex Cora.

The five-year, $90-million deal the Red Sox signed Yoshida to when many other teams in the game didn¡¯t think he was worth close to that is looking pretty good.

Yoshida has a batting line of .317/.381/.502 with 11 homers and 50 RBIs.

¡°I think we all learn from his approach,¡± said Red Sox first baseman Triston Casas, who hit a homer in all three games at Wrigley. ¡°He¡¯s just spraying the ball all over the field, taking really quality at-bats. Not chasing out of the zone, putting the ball in play. He¡¯s all around, one of the best hitters in the league for average and he¡¯s starting to hit for power and he¡¯s got that clutch factor here.¡±

Backed by Yoshida¡¯s latest eruption, the Red Sox (50-44) headed out for their brief West Coast interlude, a three-game series in Oakland, on a good note. Boston has won 10 of its last 12 and 17 of 26.

This, despite three starting pitchers on the injured list in Chris Sale, Tanner Houck and Garrett Whitlock.

Crawford is one of those pitchers being called on to fill the void, and he did an excellent job of it on Sunday, turning in his best start of the season. Over six innings, Crawford allowed one hit and four walks while striking out a career-high of nine.

¡°It was an all-around good effort. And it's a long flight but it's a happy one,¡± said Cora.

And few people on the Red Sox have more to be happy about than Yoshida, who just keeps on raking.

Said Casas: ¡°We¡¯re all taking notes from him.¡±