BOSTON -- Watch enough baseball, and there are some things that cause you to throw up your hands and laugh, they are so beyond rational explanation.

This is one of them. Sunday afternoon, Red Sox first baseman Adrian Gonzalez tripled in the fourth inning for the 1,000th hit of his career. It was also his 100th hit in 71 games for the Sox, and his third triple this season. Nothing complicated about explaining the 1,000 and 100. He's a very good hitter.

Adrian Gonzalez slides in for his third triple of the season, three more than speedy Jacoby Ellsbury. AP Photo/Michael Dwyer

"He's not going to stop there,'' Red Sox manager Terry Francona said.

But here's where the head-scratching part begins. Gonzalez is slow. Bengie Molina slow. Doug Mirabelli slow. Victor Martinez slow. Turtle slow. Snail slow. Every-cliche-that-has-ever-been-invented-to-describe-slow slow.

And yet, Gonzalez has three more triples this season than the fastest player on the Red Sox, Jacoby Ellsbury.

Two seasons ago, Ellsbury tied for the American League lead in triples with 10. That's two more triples than Gonzalez had hit in his career in 3,167 at-bats entering this season. But in 2011, Ellsbury has no triples, Gonzalez three. Never mind that Ellsbury would have had an inside-the-park home run on the ball Gonzalez hit that rolled into the center-field triangle. On the stat sheet, Gonzalez has a '3' in the triples column, Ellsbury a '0.'

"I know,'' Gonzalez said. "I was telling Jacoby, 'I've got more triples than you do. What's going on?'''

Gonzalez came up with the only answer that made sense to him. "I told Jacoby, 'I'm just faster than you.'''

Setting the question of speed aside, both Gonzalez and Ellsbury continue to hit at a prodigious rate for the Sox. Gonzalez had two hits Sunday, raising his major league-leading average to .348. The two hits also gave him his 32nd multihit game, most in the league, and his first-inning fielder's choice and single produced two runs, increasing his major-league leading RBI total to 64. The triple was his 42nd extra-base hit of the season, also most in the majors and most by a Sox player in the team's first 71 games since David Ortiz had 44 in 2004.

Ellsbury, meanwhile, had two hits just in the first inning Sunday, when the Sox sent 11 men to the plate. He singled and came across on Gonzalez's ground ball in the first, and hit a two-run, ground-rule double to expand the Sox lead to 6-0.

He had four first-inning at-bats in this series and had hits in all of them, including his eighth home run Friday night, one shy of his career high. Since being restored to the leadoff spot on April 22, Ellsbury is batting .345 in 53 games and has scored 42 runs. He and Gonzalez have combined to form a lethal combination, as Gonzalez has driven home the Sox leadoff man 19 times this season.

On Monday, Gonzalez will face his former team, the San Diego Padres, for the first time since his trade. His thoughts?

"That's the first time I've been asked that and I'm counting how many times I will be asked that,'' he said. "Just another game, another series. I've been talking to those guys all along, and will hang out with them, but I'm looking at it as another series.''