Hard to contain it at the moment, isn’t it? Another offensive barrage by the Red Sox offense and a stellar Jon Lester performance left the Washington Nationals stumbling out of the Hub. After a tough sweep at the hands of a Minnesota Twins team that appears to be coming on (weird what happens when you start giving playing time to your best players), the Red Sox have fattened up on the bottom feeders of the National League East by sweeping consecutive series against the Atlanta Braves and these Nationals.

The Red Sox won 9-3 tonight and there were really two stories. First, Jon Lester looked remarkable. No, he did not face the best offense, particularly when you consider that the tremendous Nick Johnson has been dinged up and Alfonso Soriano seems to have entered into his inevitable tumble back to earth. But still, ten strikeouts in six innings in one’s third Big League start is cause for genuine optimism, no matter what club is sitting in the opposite dugout. Lester still looks a bit raw and doesn’t have the command for me to declare him a bona fide turn-taker in a championship aspirant rotation but what else do the Sox have right now (more on this in a moment)? Lester is an enormous wild card. If tonight was an indicator of the guy we’re going to see the rest of the way then…well…I am just going to stop myself.

The second story was that David Ortiz looks officially back. He smacked a grand slam to straight away center and looked genuinely locked in all night. He is having a characteristically stellar month, and any fears that he may have regressed from MVP-candidate to mere very good hitter might be able to be put to rest.

Speaking of Ortiz, I would like to just make a quick point about a comment Jerry Remy made during tonight’s telecast. He poo-pooed some of David Ortiz’s struggles by mentioning “the shift” and how it had “probably taken ten hits away” from Ortiz. But the shift is only able to be put on because of limitations in David Ortiz’s game. You would never see a shift against Manny Ramirez or David Wright. They hit the ball to all fields, something Ortiz does not do often enough to merit positioning players in their customary, well-spread formation. That’s a real, exploitable deficiency and therefore whatever downgrade in Ortiz’s performance that is attributable to the shift is a very real manifestation of a shortcoming.

Trot Nixon is completely freaking on fire. He’s back to the point where he was in 2003 when every time he came to the plate against a right-handed hitter, even to the naked eye, it appeared to be a ridiculous mis-match. Nixon’s hands are quick enough to clear out an inside heater and his coverage good enough to handle the outside pitch. Furthermore, his eye is tremendous, and he rarely swings at balls. To top it off, he stays back on the ball and is seldom fooled by an outside pitch. When he’s going like he is, there are few things I find more enjoyable than watching Trot Nixon face righties. With Wily Mo Pena down and Terry Francona seemingly realistic about Gabe Kapler’s (lacking) abilities, Nixon has also been forced to face lefties. He’s handled the duties about as well as we could have hoped, and even smakced a double off of Mike Stanton of the Nats tonight.

The Red Sox made a low-risk acquisition by trading cash for Jason Johnson today, who had recently been DFA’d by the Tribe. Jason Johnson is not as bad as he has looked this season, and he always posts high ground ball/ fly ball ratios. With the Red Sox infield defense behind him and the Red Sox offense supporting him, I think there is a decent chance that this move works out nicely. Put it this way, a team or two will give up real value between July 20 and July 31 for a pitcher with considerably less ability than Johnson. Given the dire situation of the Sox 5th starter slot, it’s exactly the sort of thing the Sox should be doing. As an added bonus, the Sox will get to look at him for a start or four and determine if a trade for a starting pitcher is necessary to get this team over the hump. Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t but the point is that the timing of the move allows for some close evaluation.

The Sox will have a day off tomorrow before welcoming the rock-solid Phillies of Philadelphia for the weekend.