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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September 14 – September 23, 1995 | Games 153–162 | Season's End
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ONE HUNDRED AND NINE WINS, AND THE OPPONENT HAS A NAME
The bracket is set. Charlotte beat Detroit seven to five in the wild card game behind Rafael Gonzalez throwing eight and a third innings, and the Sacramento Prayers will open the American League Division Series against the Charlotte Monks — the team with Cody Zeiders.
Let that settle for a moment.
The regular season closed at one hundred and nine wins and fifty-three losses — the best record in the American League, the best in baseball. Brian Strickler won his twentieth game on September 16th against Brooklyn. Alejandro Lopez finished the year with thirty-six home runs and sixty-nine stolen bases. The Sacramento offense scored thirty-three runs in a single game against Baltimore on September 23rd. And across the final nine games the rotation delivered exactly the kind of varied performances that a staff does when the calendar says preparation but the competitive circuits are already running hot.
The schedule posted for the upcoming series against Charlotte lists Zeiders starting Game Two on September 29th. After that — Raya, Gonzalez or Sato. Sacramento is about to face the pitcher who has held this lineup to one run in forty-one innings, in a short series where every game decides something.
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DID YOU CATCH THAT GAME? — WHAT THE SCORECARDS SAY
@ Brooklyn, September 14-16 (1-2)
The September 14th loss to Brooklyn was St. Clair not finishing the seventh inning cleanly — six and two-thirds innings of four-run ball — before Benson inherited runners and allowed Rastelli's two-run double to widen the gap. Five to three, Brooklyn. Travis McKeithan got the win and deserved it: six and two-thirds innings of three-hit ball against a Sacramento lineup playing its final road series of the regular season. The Prayers hit poorly in this one and left six runners on base.
September 15th was Andretti's turn to be outpitched in Brooklyn — four runs across six and two-thirds innings against a Priests team that finished sixty-eight and eighty-seven. Robitaille went seven innings, Stokes saved it cleanly, and the Brooklyn lineup produced run-scoring hits in the fourth and fifth innings off Andretti that stuck. The final score four to two was the cleaner summary: Andretti had nothing working late, the lineup had nine hits that could not score enough, and Sacramento lost two of the first three games they played in September at an opponent with a losing record. The losses in this stretch, individually, were not alarming. Together they represented a final reminder that even one-hundred-and-nine-win teams can play flat baseball for short stretches.
Strickler on September 16th put a formal end to that question. Seven and two-thirds innings, one earned run, seven strikeouts, four walks — the command was imperfect but the results were decisive. In the top of the eighth inning, with the score tied at one, Musco hit a three-run home run off Armstrong. Mollohan added a two-run home run two batters later off the same pitcher. The Prayers scored six runs in the eighth inning after generating nothing for seven. Seven to one, Sacramento. Strickler's record moved to twenty and four. Two hundred and thirty-one strikeouts on the year at that point. The milestone was confirmed without ceremony.
vs. Washington, September 18-20 (2-1)
Rubalcava on September 18th against Washington looked like the version that concerns nobody — six and two-thirds innings, one earned run, nine strikeouts. The offense scored eight. Adams homered, Mollohan doubled in a run, the whole lineup contributed against a Washington pitching staff with a four-and-nineteen starter getting the ball. Eight to one. Rubalcava at seventeen and seven, ERA at 2.80 after the start.
September 19th was the specific kind of late-September loss that is irritating because of who it came from. Espenoza threw seven and a third innings of solid baseball — one earned run, seven strikeouts, ninety-three pitches — and allowed two runs that were both unearned in a narrow sense, both genuinely the pitcher's responsibility in another. Washington's Omar Perez held Sacramento to one run and three hits through nine innings. Two to one, Washington. The offense generated seven walks and couldn't score more than once. Jimmy Aces said afterward that it "burns a little inside," and he was right.
Andretti on September 20th was the good September Andretti — eight innings, one earned run, five strikeouts, one hundred and two pitches. The offense produced five runs in the seventh and eighth innings after Graver held them scoreless for six. Hernandez doubled in two in the eighth. Five to one, Sacramento, and Andretti moved to seventeen and nine. His ERA on the season: 3.89. The best it has been since May.
@ Baltimore, September 21-23 (2-1)
September 21st ran eleven innings against a Baltimore team that was already past their own finish line — ninety wins and the AL East title, playing out the string. Strickler held six clean innings before Lawson, Ryan, Prieto, and Scott worked through the extras in pieces, and Mele hit a walk-off solo home run off Scott in the bottom of the eleventh. Three to two, Baltimore. The loss was the kind that a team accepts in late September without revision — the rotation depth handled the extra innings appropriately, the offense was held to four hits, and Mele is exactly the kind of hitter who ends games in situations like this one.
September 22nd was a well-managed, specific win. St. Clair held five innings, Benson held a run and two-thirds, Scott followed with clean work, and Medina closed his twenty-seventh save. Marcos went three for four with a home run and two singles, driving in three including a two-run single in the sixth that provided the winning margin. Lopez hit his thirty-fifth home run. Four to two, Sacramento.
September 23rd was thirty-three to eight. Ten runs in the second inning alone. Twenty-nine total hits. Seven different players homered, including Musco's eighteenth of the season, Marcos's twentieth, Lopez's thirty-sixth, Mollohan's seventh, and Blake's tenth off Baltimore's position player pitching in the eighth inning. Rubalcava started and lasted three innings — seven earned runs, nine hits, two home runs, and an eleven-game score — before Alicea worked three clean innings and the Sacramento lineup rendered the pitching line irrelevant. The blowout result is what happens when a team that has been saving itself for October lets the throttle go for one afternoon against a pitching staff that threw out its own lineup's position players. It was the final regular season game. It ended at thirty-three to eight, which is a sentence that does not need additional context.
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THE STORIES THAT DEFINE THIS STRETCH
Strickler won twenty games and leads baseball in strikeouts at two hundred and forty-seven — Twenty wins. Two hundred and forty-seven strikeouts, thirty-six clear of the second-place pitcher in either league. A 3.35 ERA over thirty-four starts. The Hot Corner has tracked this season from the first article and the strikeout total is the number that will define how this year is remembered when the record books are examined. Whether two hundred and forty-seven is an FBL record is something league historians will confirm. What is certain: no pitcher in either league came close in 1995, and the gap between Strickler and the field grew larger every week he stayed healthy.
The Charlotte ALDS bracket is set — and Zeiders is in it — Charlotte beat Detroit seven to five in the wild card game behind Gonzalez's eight and a third innings. The ALDS opens with Sacramento, who had a bye, hosting a Charlotte team that went ninety-one and seventy-one. The Charlotte rotation entering the postseason: Raya at eighteen and eleven with a 3.24 ERA, Zeiders at sixteen and ten with a 3.97 ERA, Clawson at ten and three from the bullpen and spot starts, Gonzalez at ten and eleven. DeMario Raya is the better pitcher by ERA and will likely start Game One. Which means Zeiders starts Game Two at Cathedral Stadium — or whatever structure Jimmy Aces and the Charlotte manager settle on. The Hot Corner will analyze the matchup in the postseason preview. For now, the fact that requires repeating: Sacramento has faced Zeiders five times and scored one run across forty-one innings.
Lopez finished at thirty-six home runs and sixty-nine stolen bases — The final numbers on the season for Alejandro Lopez: thirty-six home runs, sixty-nine stolen bases, ninety-five RBI, a batting average in the .260 range, and the AL stolen base crown by a wide margin. The historical weight of the thirty-six and sixty-nine combination will be assessed properly in the postseason preview. The Hot Corner has been noting this since July. The MVP conversation will be loud in the awards ceremonies. It should be.
Andretti ended the regular season at seventeen and nine with a 3.89 ERA — the best sustained version of his 1995 season — The who's hot section tracks him at three and two, 1.84 ERA over his last seven games. The complete game against Boston. Eight innings against Washington on September 20th. Three and a half months of variance followed by six weeks of the good version. The rotation entering October has Rubalcava, Strickler, Espenoza, and an Andretti who has been the best version of himself for two months. The depth of that pitching staff, if everyone arrives healthy, is genuinely formidable against any lineup in either league.
Musco finished with eighteen home runs since returning from his labrum in late July — Eighteen home runs in approximately sixty games after returning from a partially torn labrum. His final season batting average sits around .300. The Hot Corner documented his return in July as a cautious optimistic development, not knowing whether the labrum would hold or whether the missed months would show in his production. The answer arrived over and over again in August and September: fully healthy Musco is one of the better offensive shortstops in the American League, and Sacramento enters October with him at full strength.
The Charlotte scouting report, briefly — Raya at 3.24 ERA is their best arm and a legitimate challenge for any lineup. Zeiders at 3.97 is the specific challenge this team has been unable to solve. Their lineup features Hernandez at .296 with eighteen home runs, Saavedra at .282 with fifteen, and Rodriguez at third with eighteen home runs and seventy-three RBI. The bullpen has Clawson at ten and three as a closer option. This is a good baseball team that won ninety-one games — not a paper opponent, not a stepping stone. Charlotte earned this series and will arrive in Sacramento expecting to win it. The Prayers are favored, and they should be. The margin between these two clubs across a hundred and sixty-two games is eighteen wins. In a five-game series, that margin means considerably less.
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AROUND THE LEAGUE
The playoff field is complete. American League: Sacramento with a bye, Baltimore with a bye, Columbus with a bye, and Charlotte after beating Detroit in the wild card. The ALDS matchups are Sacramento versus Charlotte and Baltimore versus Columbus. The Hot Corner is tracking the Columbus bracket closely — their ninety-nine wins this season and their record against Sacramento of four wins and five losses makes them the most credible AL championship opponent if they advance.
National League: San Antonio with a bye, Los Angeles with a bye, Albuquerque with a bye, and Milwaukee after beating Tucson in the wild card. The NL NLDS matchups are San Antonio versus Milwaukee and Los Angeles versus Albuquerque. Giacomo Benoldi of Fort Worth won the NL Triple Crown — forty-one home runs, one hundred and forty-five RBI, .361 average — in a season his team missed the playoffs. It is the tenth Triple Crown in FBL history and will be the most discussed individual regular season performance that does not result in October baseball.
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THE INBOX — Questions worth answering
From Sandra Kim of Sacramento's East Sacramento neighborhood, a pediatric occupational therapist who has been a Prayers season ticket holder since 1990 and asks: "Be honest — what is the realistic path where Charlotte beats Sacramento in this series?"
Sandra, it starts with Zeiders in Game Two. If he holds Sacramento the way he has held them all year — and there is no evidence in five starts that he will not — Charlotte wins Game Two and the series is tied going back to Charlotte. At that point the momentum question becomes real, because a Charlotte team that has been playing postseason-intensity baseball since the wild card game is more mentally prepared for a close series than a Sacramento team that has been managing itself since August. The path where Charlotte wins this ALDS: Zeiders beats them in Game Two, Raya beats them in Game Three or Four, the Charlotte bullpen closes. That sequence requires Charlotte to outperform their season averages. It has happened in October before. Honest answer: I think Sacramento wins this series in four or five games. But the specific scenario where Charlotte wins it is not a stretch of the imagination. It runs entirely through Zeiders.
From Mike Petrosyan of Sacramento's Rancho Cordova neighborhood, a software engineer and first-year Prayers fan who came to baseball through the Lopez stolen base chase and asks: "How does thirty-six home runs and sixty-nine stolen bases actually compare historically?"
Mike, welcome to baseball, and you picked the right player to follow first. The thirty-sixty combination — thirty home runs and sixty stolen bases — is among the rarest season-level achievements in the sport. Almost no one has ever done it because the game mechanics that favor stolen base leaders tend to suppress home run production and vice versa. Doing both simultaneously at the level Lopez did requires an unusual physical profile, an unusual approach at the plate, and an unusual willingness from the coaching staff to let a player with home run production run freely. Lopez had all three. The numbers will be studied carefully by whoever writes the league's annual statistical report. For a first-year fan who got here through watching Lopez run, you have spent your rookie season watching a historically rare performance.
From Ray Tolliver of Stockton, a retired postal worker who has followed the Prayers since their second season and who asks: "What is the single thing you are most worried about entering October?"
Ray, one thing. Zeiders in Game Two. Everything else — the bullpen depth, Rubalcava's consistency, whether Andretti's good version shows up in a short series — those are manageable questions. Rubalcava is healthy and throws Game One. Strickler throws Game Three. The lineup is healthy. Musco is eighteen home runs removed from his labrum surgery. The lineup depth is the best it has been all season. But none of that helps in the innings where Zeiders is on the mound in Game Two, and if he holds Sacramento to zero or one run the series is tied and the momentum has shifted to a Charlotte team that just beat Detroit in a wild card game and has every reason to believe in themselves. The single thing I am most worried about is the thing I have been documenting since June. Same answer every time.
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One hundred and nine wins. The best record in baseball. The AL West title. The bye. And on the other side of the bracket, Charlotte Monks — ninety-one wins, the wild card, DeMario Raya, and Cody Zeiders.
The postseason preview drops before Game One. Everything the regular season built is about to be tested in the only games that count.
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.