I was there last night for Jon Lester’s no-hitter. It was our annual company trip to Fenway. I was sitting way back in right field with about fifteen of my coworkers, and we spent the first five innings drinking beer and trading office gossip. Then we realized what was happening in front of us.

Until about then, the crowd had been heavily invested in Manny Ramirez’s pursuit of his 500th home run. But as Jon Lester retired one Royal after another, the atmosphere in the old ballpark became increasingly giddy and electric, with moments of expectant silence broken by cheers after every strike, groans after every ball, and gasps after every grounder. The sunset blazed pink and orange over the left field wall.

I woke up this morning and it seemed like a dream. Last night I had this crazy dream, and I was at Fenway Park in May but it was really really cold, and for some reason, all my coworkers were there, and then Jon Lester threw a no-no!

I’ve seen a lot of great moments at Fenway over the past 26 years, but when Lester recorded the final out, the cry of jubilation that erupted in the Fens sounded unlike any other cheer I have ever heard there. It wasn’t the lusty roar I’ve heard at playoff games, and it wasn’t anything like the triumphant crowing you hear at Yankee games. It was the sound of 37,000 people surrendering themselves to euphoria, falling into 100% pure, unadulterated, grade-A baseball love. In fact, I may have given in to the euphoria of the moment a little too much, if possible. No need to go into too much detail, but if you were in Kenmore Square last night and saw a blond woman, about 5′6″, leaning into the brick facade of Fenway Park and apparently attempting to hug the venerable edifice, let’s just say you weren’t hallucinating.

The night was better suited for October than May. There was a wind whipping through Boston that put whitecaps on the Charles. Dust blew into my eyes on the way to the park. It was the kind of night you expected fly balls to become home runs and pop-ups to become singles. That Jon Lester threw a no-hitter is amazing enough. That he did it in such a gale? Unbelievable. Except that I was there and I saw it with my own eyes.

I walked back across the river, the moon and the Citgo sign shining brightly on the water. I could still see the white glow of Fenway’s light towers. The night didn’t feel so cold anymore—the wind had died down. I fell into talking with a couple of guys who were also making the trek back to the Cambridge side of the Charles. I’ve high-fived with strangers in Kenmore after a great game, but I’ve never had thirty-minute conversations with them. But maybe this is just normal, post-no-hitter behavior—who knows? They told me a great story. They were sitting next to an elderly woman. Last year, she gave her tickets to Clay Buchholz’s no-no last year to her daughter and granddaughter. There may be no crying in baseball, but I do believe there is karma.

At the All-Star Break the Washington Nationals were so buried at the very bottom of the standings that we can all be forgiven for having ceased to pay any attention to them. So it is not surprising that nobody noticed just how good the Nationals have been for the past month, having gone 7-1 in their last eight games, and 15-7 since July 15.

So what is their secret? Now that is the real shocker. Since July 1st, the Washington Nationals have had the best ERA in all of baseball. That’s right, I think you probably need to read that sentence again because it doesn’t seem to compute in your head, but for nearly a month and a half, the Nationals hurlers have been the best in the game, better than Boston, better than San Diego, better than the Cubs, A’s, or Mets.

This pitching dominance has been created by letting youngsters have the ball and seeing how far they can go. Things were bad for a while when injuries felled 1-2 starters Shawn Hill and Jason Bergmann, but in recent weeks rookies Joel Hanrahan (3.27 ERA) and John Lannan (3.71) have stepped into the void, along with veteran scrap-heap find Tim Redding (2.43). And prospects are looking even better with ace Hill due back any day now and Bergmann expected to be ready by September.

But even better than the rotation has been the team’s bullpen, which has been a strength since day 1, and currently sports the third best ERA in the National League, behind only the Mets and Padres. Pretty much anyone Manny Acta runs out of that pen can be counted on to turn in a good outing, whether it’s Chad Cordero (2.57), Jon Rauch (3.67), Chris Schroeder (1.46), Luis Ayala (2.45), or Saul Rivera (3.31).

Let’s face it, at 52-61 and 11.5 games out in the East, the Nationals are not going to get anywhere near contention this season, and probably not next season or the season after that, for that matter. But if they keep pitching like they have of late, by which I mean, better than any other team there is, they can make a pretty inspiring run at .500 down the stretch!