There was a great deal of talk about “Fenway swings” and ballpark “magic” following Saturday night’s 7-2 win over the Baltimore Orioles. (Recap.)

The “glad to be home” chatter and Green Monster-rattling offense told the only story necessary for a Red Sox offense that clearly seemed in need of a little Yawkey Way home cooking after a week on the cold, unforgiving road. After scoring a grand total of 13 runs and averaging little more than six hits per game in the first six contests of the second half, the Boston bats have cranked out 19 hits over their last two games and scored two straight wins over the hapless O’s.

In fact, Saturday night’s seven run, 10 hit outburst was the highest offensive output for an underachieving Sox hitting order since the All-Star break. The Sox have won 11 games in a row against the Orioles at Fenway Park in a stunning case of the MLB schedule-makers giving Boston exactly what they needed. Baltimore, meanwhile, fell to 1-16 in road games against AL East teams this season.

There is perhaps no greater example of the “Fenway is better” philosophy than David Ortiz. He took advantage of the warm July weather with a three-run first inning bomb into to dead centerfield that carried an extra 10-20 feet at the ole ball yard – a phenomenon that Sox hitters noted when baseballs were jumping off their lumber during BP.

There have been precious few true summer evenings in Boston when the Sox have been in town during this wacky weather summer, but Saturday night was a perfect storm of hot temps with a lineup full of bats waiting to burst out.

Ortiz has bashed 11 of his 13 home runs at Fenway and knocked in 35 of his 54 RBIs in 46 games at his home ballpark this season. On Saturday, he set an offensive tone for the rest of the team that allowed the rest of his formerly slumping mates to relax and draw in a long, cleansing breath.

“We’ve had some crazy tight games and we needed that. We need to produce for our pitching,” said Ortiz. “That’s the only way we’re going to win games. We’ve got to bring it. That’s everywhere, but hitting here at Fenway is just magical.”

Dustin Pedroia was the only Sox regular who didn’t finish the night with a hit in a team-wide display of offense that seemed all-but-impossible during the road trip through Toronto and Texas. The team batting average leaps from .252 to .272 when at home, and the Sox score another extra run per game when in home whites, improving from 4.6 runs per game on the road to 5.6 runs a night in Boston.

“I think there’s a lot to that,” said Sox manager Terry Francona. “I know you have to be able to win anywhere, I understand that, but this is our home ballpark and there’s a lot of energy. (We) play 81 games here and we should be better here.

“I think it definitely helps being home. I would never say that it doesn’t. We love playing here.”

With the knowledge safely tucked away that the Sox are a pretty safe bet to pound the baseball on their own home diamond, here are four other lessons from a night when the Sox offense finally woke up:

ADAM LAROCHE’S SWING REALLY IS BUILT FOR FENWAY PARK

It seems as if every new ballplayer that walks through the home clubhouse doors at Fenway Park is trumpeted as a hitter with a swing that’s perfectly made for the unique constructs of Boston’s ballpark. It appears that this is more than just a platitude for the 29-year-old LaRoche. He displayed what Francona beamingly called a “Fenway swing” when he slashed at an outside fastball and smoked a two-run home run over the Green Monster into the first row of seats above the wall.

LaRoche admitted after the game that the proximity of the Monster is going to lure him back into an offensive approach of hitting the ball to all fields that he abandoned at PNC Field in Pittsburgh. One of LaRoche’s former Pittsburgh Pirates teammates, Jason Bay, couldn’t help but laugh at his teammate practically frothing at the mouth to attack the wall upon his arrival at the Fens on Friday.

“We’re taking over,” said Bay jokingly about the ex-Pirates contingent now getting it done for the Sox. “It was good for Rochie. That was the first thing he said when he get on the field. He looked over at the (Monster) and was like ‘I like that.’ I thought he was talking about a sign or something. He said, ‘That Wall.’ If you’ve ever seen left field or left-center at (PNC Park) in Pittsburgh then you would know why. Especially for a left-handed hitter, it’s really tough to try and juice it up out that way.

“He’s got a really smooth swing. Sometimes it’s a blessing and sometimes it’s a curse. As a right-handed batter you can get really pull-happy, but as a left-handed hitter (the short wall in left) can really force you stay inside the ball. He’ll be fine anyway, but that definitely won’t hurt him.”

As far as playing time goes for LaRoche, Francona gave Kevin Youkilis the day off on Saturday – something that he grumbled about prior to the game along with far-flung rumors he had heard that would be shipping him to the San Diego Padres for Adrian Gonzalez – and planned on giving third baseman Mike Lowell the day off Sunday afternoon in a day game situation following a night game.

But the Sox skipper was quick to say that there wasn’t going to be any “rotation” of playing time when it comes to LaRoche, Youkilis, Lowell and David Ortiz – and it would be more of a situation akin to fitting the newly acquired corner infielder into an existing baseball puzzle. 

THE STOLEN BASE BUCK DOESN’T JUST STOP WITH JASON VARITEK

Boston’s baseball captain has endured his share of slings and arrows this season as opposing teams have piled up stolen bases, and the numbers are beginning to add up in a negative way. Through Saturday night’s win, Jason Varitek has caught only 12 of 86 would-be base stealers this season for a 15 percent success rate.

To put it in perspective, Varitek had never had a season in the Major Leagues where he’d thrown out less than 22 percent of attempted base stealers heading into the 2009 baseball season.

The 15 percent is low by catchers’ standards and is by far the lowest mark of Varitek’s career – a statistic that is exacerbated on a night like last week’s 6-for-6 stolen base affair during a loss to the Texas Rangers. It’s clearly a team-oriented statistic, though, and the Sox have made a conscious decision to sometimes ignore the dangers of an active base runner in the wake of a bigger challenge waiting with a bat in hand at home plate.

“There are a lot of different reasons for that,” said Francona. “One is that we choose to defend a stolen base less than a two-run homer. It’s on us and ‘Tek knows that. There are times where we’ve gotten teams – Tampa and Texas – where they’re athletic and they’ve played with a lead.

“You’re almost caught in a storm (with stolen bases), but that doesn’t happen when we have a lead. Then there’s times like Friday night where ‘Tek gets his chance (to throw somebody out) and he lets it sail. So he’s frustrated. It’s a little bit of everything. I don’t think we want everybody to run all over us and there’s a frustration at times, but I don’t think there’s a panic over it that ‘Tek can’t throw. We don’t pitch out very often. We like our pitching, and we don’t want to put guys in a hole.”

The success rate has been compounded with a handful of bad throws by Varitek, such as the errant throw to second base in Friday night’s win over the Orioles that eventually led to a run for the O’s.

Varitek wasn’t making any excuses, and instead bore the brunt of a situation that has many moving parts: the situation in a particular game, the skill or lack thereof at controlling the running game by the particular pitcher on the mound and – finally – the mechanics of unloading a strong, accurate throw from behind the plate that reaches second base in two seconds or less (a time considered the Gold Standard for catchers trying to nab potential base stealers).

“Blame me,” said the catcher simply without making an iota of an excuse. “I’ve got the athletic ability and I’ve got the arm to be able to do a better job with it. There are a lot of things that go into holding runners on and throwing runners out, but I can always be better.”

JON LESTER SIMPLY DOESN’T LOSE TO THE BALTIMORE ORIOLES…EVER

While the Sox have put together some pretty impressive numbers against the Orioles at Fenway Park over the last few seasons, Jon Lester has been nothing short of perfect against the O’s since he debuted in the big leagues in 2006.

The 25-year-old southpaw had his 96-mph fastball and sweeping curveball working in tandem through 7 1/3 innings of solid work, and shook off eight hits and a pair of walks by allowing only two runs. Lester fanned nine and completely froze lefty swingers Nick Markakis and Aubrey Huff, who combined for a 1-for-9 night with three strikeouts as the No. 2 and No. 4 hitters in Baltimore’s lineup.

The victory pushed Lester to an amazing 9-0 with a 2.21 ERA in 11 career starts and 69 1/3 innings against the Orioles over the last three plus seasons. On this night, however, his manager and teammates didn’t seem to think it mattered too much who was digging into the batter’s box against the powerful Lester.

“The way he's throwing, I'd hate to say it doesn't matter [who the opponent is], but if he pitches like that he's going to be OK,” said the Sox skipper. “When he’s throwing (the curveball) well, they’ve got to respect one or the other. If he’s able to do both, sometimes three pitches, it gives (Lester) a lot of different ways to go.”

Lester was going to get his ninth win of the season, and he was going to do his part to get the second-place Red Sox moving again in the right direction. It worked last night as Boston gained a game on a Yankees team that finally lost for the first time in the season’s second half, and the Sox now sit 1 ½ games behind New York heading into Sunday afternoon's series finale against the O's. 

JACOBY ELLSBURY IS SETTLING BACK INTO THE LEADOFF SPOT

There’s been a lot of ballyhoo about the leadoff spot in the Red Sox batting order this season and the lack of on-base presence provided out of a vital spot in the team’s offense. Critics pointed to Jacoby Ellsbury’s .336 on-base percentage last season as an area that needed some healthy improvement, and both Dustin Pedroia and J.D. Drew struggled during aborted stints at the leadoff spot this summer.

But once Jed Lowrie returned to health and David Ortiz was once again slugging enough to man the middle of the lineup, Francona returned Ellsbury to the top of the order during the last road trip. Last night, things finally seemed to snap into place and the 25-year-old centerfielder responded with a pair of doubles and two runs batted in during an offensive awakening out of the top spot.

“I enjoy the leadoff spot and being a catalyst for the team. Basically I haven’t changed my approach and they told me to just continue doing what I was doing in the No. 6 hole,” said Ellsbury. “So I’m just continuing to do what I was doing in the leadoff spot earlier in the year and keeping at it.”

Ellsbury has only a .337 on base percentage this season and is on pace to score 84 runs – well shy of the 100 runs scored that he sets as a personal goal each and every season – but it’s much too early to give up on the speed-burner as a prototypical leadoff man. Everyone points to Johnny Damon as Ellsbury’s role model as a speedy, selective top-of-the-order man capable of sparking the Sox offense, but people forget that Damon’s numbers were remarkably similar to Ellsbury’s in his first few seasons learning how to be an effective leadoff guy.

Damon’s on base percentages during his first three full seasons with the Royals while cutting his teeth at the top of the order: .313, .338 and .339.

Damon’s early work is eerily similar to the numbers that Ellsbury has been producing over the last two seasons while learning how to be a leadoff hitter who fouls off pitches, collects his walks, gets on base, wreaks havoc on the basepaths and scores runs in bunches.

With patience and time, Ellsbury may yet emerge as the leadoff man whom the Sox have seemingly lacked since Damon signed with the New York Yankees following the 2005 season.