THE HOT CORNER
Baseball coverage from the inside — Sacramento Prayers and the FBL
By Claude Playball | Baseball Insider & Analyst | Host, "Hot Corner" Podcast
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June 3 – June 14, 1995 | Games 61–72 of the Sacramento Prayers 1995 Season
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FIFTY-TWO AND TWENTY, ESPENOZA IS ON FIRE, RODRIGUEZ HIT TWO MORE HOME RUNS OFF THE SAME PITCHER, ANDRETTI HAD TWO MORE BAD STARTS, AND NASHVILLE SWEPT US BEFORE WE REMEMBERED WHO WE WERE
June arrived and it brought rain delays, a Nashville sweep, a Zeiders shutout in eight weather-shortened innings, two more Andretti implosions, and a sequence of San Jose home runs that had nothing to do with team quality and everything to do with the specific chaos that occurs when a starter falls apart in the third inning. In between all of that — and there was a lot of between — Rubalcava threw a hundred and four pitches and won eleven to two in Nashville, Lopez hit a walk-off home run in the eleventh inning at San Jose, Francisco Hernandez drove in five runs against Charlotte, and Jose Rodriguez hit two home runs off DeMario Raya in the same game on a rainy evening in North Carolina.
The final result of these twelve games is seven wins and five losses. The record through seventy-two games stands at fifty-two and twenty. The division lead is fifteen games over Seattle. The Sacramento Prayers are a better team at the end of this stretch than the five losses suggest, and I intend to show the work on that claim.
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DID YOU CATCH THAT GAME? — WHAT THE SCORECARDS SAY
@ Nashville, June 3-5 (1-2)
The Nashville series opened on June 3rd with Andretti's second bad start of the season — three and a third innings, five earned runs, the Chavez two-run triple in the second doing the damage that put Nashville ahead in the pattern that cost Andretti the game. His record moved to ten and two. Nashville won six to one, the Sacramento lineup managed four hits against Oliva for five and a third innings, and the organizational memory of the Columbus series from May got its first June echo.
Game Two on June 4th was the specific kind of loss that stays with a pitching staff. Espenoza threw seven innings of shutout ball. Seven innings, three hits, zero runs, seven strikeouts, ninety-eight pitches. He handed the game to Prieto in the eighth with a one-to-nothing Sacramento lead and Prieto allowed a two-run Chavez home run to end it. That home run was Chavez's eighth of the year and arrived on a two-two count with one out — the specific competitive situation where closers and setup men are paid to put people away. Prieto absorbed his third blown save. The two-to-one loss moved the record to forty-five and seventeen and handed Nashville a two-game series lead. It also handed Espenoza a loss that his pitching line did not remotely earn, which is the specific baseball injustice that has no organizational remedy.
Game Three on June 5th was Rubalcava's answer to the previous two days — seven innings, seven hits, one earned run, zero walks, six strikeouts, with Lopez going four for five with two doubles and three RBI in an eleven-to-two Sacramento win. The offense produced fifteen hits against Rosario and Nashville's bullpen and sent the Prayers home with a two-to-one Nashville series loss. Rubalcava moved to eight and one. The division lead held.
vs. Philadelphia, June 6-8 (2-1)
Strickler on June 6th was the version of Strickler that makes the five-year contract feel like it was priced appropriately. Five and two-thirds innings, three hits, zero runs, ten strikeouts. Ten. The Philadelphia lineup that arrived with the second-best winning percentage in the AL East went home having produced one run total — a Hassett home run off Benson in the eighth — against a Sacramento pitching performance that was dominant from start to finish. Cruz's run-scoring double in the seventh provided the go-ahead run. Medina closed for his fifth save. Two to one.
Jimenez's June 7th start introduced the first five-run fifth inning of his brief major league career, which is the kind of performance line that either looks like growing pains or an early warning sign depending entirely on the three to four starts that follow it. Against Philadelphia he allowed three runs across five and two-thirds innings with the actual earned runs held to one by a defense that caught up to what he'd done — the unearned runs charged to him in the context of the broader game less damaging than the raw line suggests. He won. His record moved to two and zero. MacDonald drove in two with a bases-loaded single. Medina closed for his sixth save. Six to four.
Andretti on June 8th produced the second implosion of this stretch — four and two-thirds innings, nine hits, six earned runs, his third loss of the season. Marable's two-run single in the fourth put Philadelphia ahead for good. Bruce Cruz went six innings of two-run ball and watched his bullpen close the seven-to-three victory while the Sacramento lineup got three runs on seven hits and couldn't find the extra gear that would have made the game interesting after the fifth inning. The record moved to forty-eight and eighteen and the organizational question that has trailed Andretti since May arrived again: what makes some starts excellent and others disasters?
@ San Jose, June 9-11 (2-1)
Game One at San Jose on June 9th was Espenoza's showcase — eight innings, eight hits, two runs, zero walks, four strikeouts, with Rodriguez and Perez hitting back-to-back home runs in the third inning that broke the game open. Rodriguez hit his eleventh. Perez hit his twelfth. Marcos added a two-run double. The final score of ten to two was exactly the kind of series-opening statement that redirects momentum after a rough road series.
Game Two on June 10th went eleven innings, which is a fact that requires documentation. The Prayers trailed, tied, rallied, blew the rally, held in extra innings, and finally won when Lopez hit a solo home run in the eleventh off Rotman to end it five to four. Lopez went three for five with the home run and two singles on the day, stole a base, and scored three times. Rubalcava started and threw seven and two-thirds innings of three-run ball before the bullpen cycle began — Prieto for one out, Medina blowing the save in the ninth on an Adams double that tied it, Lawson holding two clean innings to earn his sixth win. Three hours and fifty-nine minutes of baseball for one run of margin. Sacramento Preayers moved to fifty and eighteen.
The June 11th loss at San Jose was the scoreboard event that produces organizational discomfort and also full contextual documentation. Strickler allowed six earned runs in four and two-thirds innings and Jimenez was brought in with runners on and allowed an inherited runner to score plus four of his own — including a Vazquez grand slam — before recording zero outs in his appearance. Both pitchers were having bad days against a team that was thirty-one and forty entering the series. San Jose won eleven to eight in a game where Marcos went three for four with two home runs and a double and drove in three runs and Sacramento still lost. Sometimes a lineup produces eleven runs and wins. Sometimes it produces eight and loses. This was the second kind.
@ Charlotte, June 12-14 (2-1)
The June 12th Charlotte loss deserves a specific sentence: Cody Zeiders, who entered the game with a 4.26 ERA through twelve starts, threw eight innings of four-hit shutout baseball against the Sacramento Prayers and the game was called due to rain after the eighth inning. Zero runs. Four hits. Zeiders threw a hundred and eleven pitches and Sacramento could not find the ballpark. Jimenez started and allowed four runs in four and a third innings with the primary damage coming from a Saavedra two-run triple in the first inning. The five-to-zero loss moved the record to fifty and twenty and in a single game confirmed every defensive thing the Hot Corner has ever said about Jimenez as a rotation option compared to a bullpen piece.
Andretti bounced back on June 13th in Charlotte with five and a third innings of two-run ball and his eleventh win — not dominant, allowing eight hits and the Rodriguez home run in the second, but sufficient because the Sacramento offense produced eleven runs against Forrest and a Charlotte bullpen that allowed seven runs in three and two-thirds innings after the starter departed. Hernandez hit a three-run home run in the fifth to break the game open, then hit a two-run double in the seventh for a five-RBI afternoon. Marcos added a three-run home run in the seventh as the offense piled on. Eleven to five was the final score and Sacramento's record moved to fifty-one and twenty.
Rodriguez saved the best for June 14th — two home runs off DeMario Raya, both solo shots, one in the third and one in the seventh to break a two-to-two tie. Raya entered the game with a 2.87 ERA, fifth in the league, and was working on a quality start before Rodriguez hit the same pitcher twice in the same game for the second time this season. Espenoza went six innings of two-run ball for his seventh win, Prieto held two clean innings, Medina closed for his seventh save. Four to two. Half way through the month of June Sacramento is fifty-two and twenty.
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THE STORIES THAT DEFINE THIS STRETCH
Espenoza is 7-1 with a 3.00 ERA and has been the best pitcher on the staff for the past five weeks — The numbers over his last five starts: three and one record, 1.27 ERA. He has gone eight innings twice and has not allowed more than two earned runs in any of those five starts. Mario Espenoza threw a no-hitter in September 1994. He carried a 4-plus ERA into mid-May 1995. Whatever he found between April and June is sitting at exactly the right moment, because the rotation depth that surrounded him has been inconsistent and Sacramento needed a second legitimate anchor behind Rubalcava.
The Andretti variance problem will not stay quiet — Eleven and three sounds excellent. The problem is that the three losses have arrived in starts of 28, 24, and also 28 on the game score scale, which is the kind of performance number that loses games against bad teams. His ERA has risen from 2.92 to 3.69 in this twelve-game stretch. The starts before the bad ones are consistently excellent. The pattern of excellent-then-disaster-then-excellent has now repeated three times. It is not a fluke. It is a documented characteristic of how Andretti pitches, and the question entering the second half of the season is whether the good starts outnumber the bad ones by the specific margin Sacramento needs.
Rodriguez and the league's pitchers are having an unequal conversation — Thirteen home runs. Two off Raya in Charlotte. Two off Schilder in Seattle earlier this season. The twenty-five-year-old third baseman with a seventy-eight ceiling who was going through a cold stretch in mid-May has hit thirteen home runs in seventy-two games, which projects to thirty home runs at season's end. His defensive value was already established — two Gold Gloves — and his bat is now arriving at the level that matches the ceiling the organizational scouts assigned him. The Hot Corner has been tracking this since April and the verdict is becoming harder to dispute: Rodriguez is the most exciting developmental story on this roster.
Jimenez as a starter is producing inconsistent results at the worst possible time — The seven and a third innings at 1.23 ERA from his first two appearances were a nice surprise and an organizational catnip. Since then: four and a third innings of four-run ball in Charlotte followed by zero outs allowed and a grand slam surrendered in San Jose. His ERA has risen from 1.23 to 3.86 and he is now two and two. The evidence suggests he is a bullpen arm being asked to do starter's work, and the fifth starter problem that has followed the Prayers since April has not found its answer in Jimenez. St. Clair's stubborn finger blister pushed back Danny's return to active duty yet another week. The rotation below Rubalcava, Andretti, Espenoza, and Strickler remains genuinely unsettled.
Adams added an oblique strain to the hamstring — Matt Adams was sent to Triple-A Oxnard for injury rehabilitation on June 7th and was then placed on the ten-day IL on June 12th, retroactive to June 11th, after suffering a mild oblique strain on the rehab assignment. The hamstring that originally sidelined him in late April has been followed by a secondary injury in rehabilitation. His timeline entering this stretch was already behind schedule and the oblique complicates it further. Lopez's finger blister timeline remains listed as unknown. The outfield depth picture heading into the second half is thinner than the standings would suggest.
Musco is three weeks from return eligibility — The partially torn labrum has now been healing since mid-April, and the injury report places Musco at three weeks from eligible return. Three weeks is not guaranteed return. It is the earliest possible window for a medical clearance conversation. But the structural situation at shortstop — with Orozco signed to a five-year extension and Marcos holding down the position admirably at .240 with twelve home runs — has clarified into something the organization can manage regardless of timeline.
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AROUND THE LEAGUE
The AL West lead is fifteen games. The standings have Seattle at thirty-seven and thirty-five, which means they have won nine of their last ten games and are playing well. The fifteen-game lead is comfortable. It is not infinite. The Hot Corner notes it without alarm.
The wild card race is the more interesting story. Detroit leads at forty-one and thirty-one. Charlotte, Nashville, Seattle, and Philadelphia are all tied at thirty-seven and thirty-five — four teams within one game of the first wild card spot, four teams playing meaningful baseball in the second week of June. Columbus is forty-two and thirty with the best record in the AL Central. If October arrives and the Prayers face a wild card opponent, it is almost certainly Detroit, Charlotte, or whoever breaks the four-way tie first.
In the NL, the Desert Division has tightened with Tucson at forty and thirty-two, Phoenix one back at thirty-nine and thirty-three, and El Paso two and a half back. The Cherubs who pushed Sacramento to five games in the 1994 ALCS before losing are going to be a different kind of October obstacle if they and the Prayers both make it. The scouting work that started in May continues in June.
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THE INBOX — Questions worth answering
From Rosa Aghajanian of Fresno, a night-shift pharmacist who drives two hours to Cathedral Stadium three times a season and who asks: "The rotation past the top four scares me more every week. What's actually the plan?"
Rosa, first of all, the two-hour drive and the night shift schedule means you are a deeply committed person and Cathedral Stadium is lucky to have you in the seats. The plan, as best the Hot Corner can reconstruct it from what the organization has done rather than what it has said: St. Clair returns in approximately a week from his finger blister setback and presumably slots back into the fifth rotation spot. That's the baseline. Below that, Jimenez is in the bullpen in the right configuration of this roster — his early relief numbers were excellent, his starting numbers have been uneven, and the correct use of that arm is probably sixty pitches in the middle innings rather than a hundred pitches as the primary starter. The honest answer is that the fifth starter problem has been present since Opening Day, persists through game seventy-two, and will likely persist until either St. Clair proves he's healthy or the front office makes a move. The top four — Rubalcava, Andretti, Espenoza, Strickler — are good enough to carry the team regardless. They have been doing exactly that.
From Tommy Bautista of Sacramento's Arden-Arcade neighborhood, a high school soccer coach who started following baseball specifically because of the 1994 championship and wants to know: "Is Perez as underrated as he seems? He's got fifty RBI in seventy-two games and nobody talks about him."
Tommy, you picked the right time to start following baseball and you are asking exactly the right question. David Perez is one of the least-discussed fifty-RBI hitters in the American League right now and the reasons are entirely contextual rather than statistical. He is surrounded by Lopez at .266 with fourteen home runs, Rodriguez at .231 with thirteen home runs, Hernandez at .264 with eleven home runs, and Cruz who has been hitting .285. In a lineup without those names, Perez's numbers get four paragraphs every week. In this lineup he gets the third paragraph of a crowded notes section. The hot take: Perez has been the most consistent run producer on this roster since Opening Day. He opted out of his contract last November and re-signed for five years, which in hindsight looks like the kind of loyalty-and-stability decision that championship organizations benefit from years after the ink dries. Fifty RBI in seventy-two games. Forty-eight home run pace at eleven. The man is not underrated by the organization. He may be underrated everywhere else.
From Marcus Webb of Sacramento's Oak Park neighborhood, a plumber who has been following the Prayers since 1988 and who says he watches every game and would like to know: "What's our World Series opponent going to be, and should we be scared of them?"
Marcus, the Hot Corner appreciates the confidence implicit in asking about World Series opponents rather than whether we get there. The field as it stands in mid-June: in the AL, the Prayers would likely face the AL wild card winner — Detroit, Charlotte, or one of the Nashville-Seattle-Philadelphia cluster — in the ALDS, then presumably the winner of the other division in the ALCS. That winner is probably Detroit or Columbus. In the NL, Tucson is the team worth watching — they have the best record we faced in October 1994 and their Desert Division competition from Phoenix is real but has not passed them yet. San Antonio is forty-two and thirty with seventeen wins in their last twenty-two games and nobody outside the NL Central has fully noticed. Los Angeles is first in the NL Pacific and playing .556 ball. There are four or five teams that could come out of the NL as a legitimate October obstacle. Should you be scared of any of them? Not at the level of the 1995 Sacramento rotation. No team in either league is carrying two pitchers in the top five of ERA in the same city. The Prayers, on balance, are the best team in baseball. Scouting starts now. Fear comes later, if at all.
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Columbus visits Cathedral Stadium Friday through Sunday in what is genuinely the most important regular season series of the 1995 calendar — the team that swept the Prayers in May, now at forty-two and thirty with a thirteen-game winning streak recently concluded, coming to Sacramento. Then Brooklyn on the road. Musco is three weeks from return eligibility. Adams is somewhere in Oxnard trying to get an oblique to cooperate. St. Clair is one week from his latest return projection.
Fifty-two and twenty. Thirty-two games over .500. The best pitching staff in baseball by every available measure, the division lead in double digits, and Columbus at Cathedral Stadium this weekend to remind everyone that the regular season still has substance to offer.
Got a question for the mailbag? Find the Hot Corner wherever you get your podcasts.
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Claude Playball is a baseball insider and analyst and host of the Hot Corner podcast, based in Sacramento, California.