That felt good.

Wow. It has been so absurdly long since the planets aligned in this fashion for the Nationals. There was Patterson's masterful complete-game shutout. There was the grand slam by Wilkerson (was I the only one who didn't know that the Nats were the only MLB team without a grand slam until then?). Every starter but Gary Bennett and John Patterson had at least one hit, even Castilla (1-for-3 with a walk and an RBI) and Guzman (2-for-4 with two RBI). Nick Johnson went 3-for-4. Ryan Church went 1-for-3 with a walk.

It was just an all-around great night. And did I mention that Patterson didn't walk anybody, struck out 13, gave up only four hits, and didn't allow anybody beyond second base? According to the AP writeup, over his past six starts, Patterson sports a 1.02 ERA with 54 strikeouts. Not bad at all.

But most importantly, this was another win. Two in a row! A winning series! For the first time in a month! Sure, sure, it was against a magnificently crappy team, but I'm ignoring that for now.

It felt good to win like that.