Save Saturday, and really there’s no shame in being shut down by Felix Hernandez, Boston brought their bats out west - a welcome sight after scoring 28 runs in their first eight games after the All Star Break (all home games to boot). The Sox have scored 40 runs in their first five games of this West Coast swing. Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz have led the way, while Jason Varitek and Kevin Youkilis have each enjoyed mini-resurgences.

Last night was particularly encouraging because Trot Nixon homered, finally notching an extra base hit this month and in the process increasing his July slugging percentage from .183 to .242. Look out world! Neither starter Jason Windsor nor relievers Kirk Saarloos, Justin Duchscherer and Brad Halsey had much success thwarting Boston’s offensive attack. It was consistent and unrelenting, with the highlight coming in the six-run eighth. The Sox sent 11 men to the plate in the inning and any doubt about the game’s outcome that remained going into the eighth, was gone.

For his part, Curt Schilling was unspectacular but solid. He allowed seven base-runners in six innings of work (and just one extra-base hit) but only struck out three. The bullpen came on and did a good enough job. Is anyone better than Rudy Seanez with an eight-run lead?

The offensive resurgence is not something that will be a luxury down the stretch, nor will solid starting pitching and good relief work. This is one hell of an American League dogfight the Sox are going to find themselves in over the next couple of months. As I alluded to yesterday, the Minnesota Twins are pretty clearly baseball’s best team at the moment, the Angels have been even better than them for about three weeks now, these A’s aren’t going anywhere, someone forgot to tell the Tigers they’re a fluke, the White Sox are the defending champs, the Blue Jays keep winning and the Yankees have another couple of runs in them - trust me. The bar has been raised in the Junior Circuit, and Boston will need to play at an elite level, better than they’ve played in any other playoff drive of this era of good Red Sox feelings (1999-2006), just to qualify for post-season play.

Today, Kyle Snyder will try and keep the Sox in the game against Dan Haren - a hurler the Sox were able to touch up at Fenway 11 days ago. Day-ball - 3:35 start.