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liberty-ca · 04-22-2026, 11:24 AM

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 13 – September 29, 1996 | Final Regular Season Edition | One Hundred and Eight Wins | American League West Champions | Your 1996 Sacramento Prayers

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ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHT WINS. YEARS FROM NOW SOMEONE WILL SAY "REMEMBER THE '96 PRAYERS"? AND THEY WILL MEAN THIS.

The season is over. Team's record is one hundred and eight wins, fifty-four losses. A first-round bye in the American League Division Series while the bracket plays out below. The team that takes the field in the ALDS will arrive rested, healthy — Andy Benson excepted, and I will come to that — and carrying the best ERA in baseball from a man named Jordan Rubalcava who is thirty-three years old and spent the entire year pitching the way people assumed he used to pitch when he was twenty-six.

Let me give you the final numbers before I say anything else, because the numbers are the story.

Jordan Rubalcava: 21-7, 2.85 ERA, 192 strikeouts. Leads all of baseball in ERA. Second in wins behind Gonzalez of Detroit at twenty-two. Brian Strickler: 17-10, 3.35 ERA, 237 strikeouts. Leads all of baseball in strikeouts. Bernardo Andretti: 20-7, 3.52 ERA, 171 strikeouts. Twenty wins. Mario Espenoza: 15-9, 3.35 ERA, 169 strikeouts. Danny St. Clair: 11-7, 4.25 ERA.

Five starters. The highest ERA among the five is 4.25. Three of the top five ERA qualifiers in the entire league are on this rotation. Strickler leads all of baseball in strikeouts. The Hot Corner ran out of adjectives for this rotation in July and has been reusing them since.

Edwin Musco: 31 home runs, 108 RBI, .289 average. Thirty-one home runs. Thirty-six years old. Body held up by iron will and duct tape. I've been watching his performances all year and I cannot explain how it is possible to do what he does on a daily bases.

Alejandro Lopez: 29 home runs, 70 stolen bases. Seventy! His career high was sixty-nine.

It is October. The Prayers have a bye. The bracket is forming.

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DID YOU CATCH THAT GAME? — WHAT THE SCORECARDS SAY

@ Philadelphia, September 13-15 (2-1)

The September 13th loss was Andretti's sixth of the year and his fourth genuinely poor start in the second half — five and a third innings, three runs, zero strikeouts. Young struck out thirteen Sacramento hitters and the lineup produced nothing. Seven to nothing. The ERA moved to 3.56. The Hot Corner has been tracking this pattern and I will assess it fully in the season summary below.

Espenoza on September 14th responded with seven innings of one-run ball. Lopez drove in two with a sacrifice fly and a solo home run in the ninth. Five to one.

Strickler on September 15th went six innings and allowed three runs while Perez hit a three-run homer in the sixth for the lead. Six to four was the final score. The Philadelphia series finished two-and-one.

@ Boston, September 16-18 (3-0)

Rodriguez returned from the IL and started at shortstop September 16th, with Musco removed from the game in the fourth inning after injuring his throwing arm. This is the Hot Corner's first mention of a new Musco injury and I want to document it: he threw a ball during the game, felt something, and was removed. He returned to action by September 17th. The injury is logged.

Rubalcava on September 16th threw seven innings of one-run ball. MacDonald homered in the first, Lopez in the sixth. Seven to one in what turned out to be Rubalcava's nineteenth win.

St. Clair on September 17th allowed four runs in six and two-thirds innings — back-to-back home runs by Martinez and Goldsberry in the fifth — but Lopez hit a three-run homer in the seventh to retake the lead. Seven to four. Lopez: two home runs in two games, five RBI on the night. He is at twenty-nine home runs for the season.

Andretti on September 18th won his twentieth game with six and a third innings of two-run ball. Lozano homered, Hernandez homered, Perez homered. Seven to two. Andretti at twenty and six. I am filing his twentieth win as the redemptive counterpoint to the Philadelphia loss five days earlier.

vs. San Jose, September 20-22 (3-0)

Strickler on September 20th allowed three runs in five innings with three hit batsmen, left the game with a lead, and Lawson held two scoreless innings for the win. Choi hit two home runs. Six to three. Lawson is six and zero on the year with a 3.44 ERA. He has been one of the quietest excellent stories of this season.

Rubalcava on September 21st threw eight innings of shutout ball, nine strikeouts, zero walks. His ERA after this start: 2.89. Five to nothing. His twentieth win.

Espenoza on September 22nd held seven innings of three-hit shutout ball. Lozano hit two more home runs. Cruz homered. Musco homered. Seven to nothing. Eight consecutive wins for Sacramento Prayers.

vs. Portland, September 23-25 (1-2)

Portland won two of three, which is the only thing worth saying about these games before I say specific things. Andretti lost his seventh game on September 23rd to a pitcher named Ramon Mayorga who was one and zero on the year and threw six and two-thirds innings of one-run ball. Three to one.

September 24th had Perez going four for four with seven RBI — a three-run home run in the eighth, a two-run single in the fifth, four total hits — in a twelve-to-seven win where St. Clair allowed six runs in five innings but the lineup kept scoring. Rodriguez homered twice counting from his return. Rodriguez hit his nineteenth and twentieth home runs in a Sacramento uniform, a detail that will matter when constructing the October lineup.

September 25th was Strickler throwing eight innings of two-hit ball, a game score of seventy-eight, and losing one to nothing on a Perez sacrifice fly in the seventh by a team that was forty-nine and one-hundred-and-eight. The Hot Corner notes that this happened and has no satisfying explanation.

vs. Seattle, September 27-29 (3-0)

The final series of the regular season. Three games, three wins, two of them dramatic.

Rubalcava on September 27th won his twenty-first game with six and two-thirds innings of three-hit ball. Musco homered in the sixth for three runs. Cruz and Lozano homered in the seventh. Nine to seven after the bullpen allowed six late. Rubalcava's ERA: 2.85. It leads all of baseball.

September 28th was Andretti going seven and a third quality innings before Benson entered in the ninth and allowed a Penela home run. Cruz hit a walk-off double in the bottom of the ninth off Reyes. Six to five. Medina won in relief, his third win. And in the process of recording those final outs, Benson felt something in his shoulder and left the field. He is out for the postseason with shoulder inflammation. His season: six saves, 3.74 ERA, sixty-five innings. He will not pitch in October and he will be missed big time in playoffs.

September 29th was the season finale, and it produced the most Sacramento ending imaginable. Espenoza allowed a Strahan grand slam in the fourth and the lineup trailed through five innings. Then Rodriguez hit a three-run homer in the sixth. Then Musco hit a two-run homer in the ninth off Gutierrez to tie it. Then Perez hit a walk-off single in the bottom of the ninth. Eight to seven. Gonzalez got the win. The final regular season game ended on a Perez single with the bases loaded.

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THE STORIES THAT DEFINE THIS SEASON

I have written season summaries before. The 1993 team won one hundred and five games and lost in the ALDS. The 1994 team won one hundred and seven games and won the World Series. The 1995 team won one hundred and nine games and won the World Series. This team won one hundred and eight games. These are the numbers of a perennial contender, who is gunning for a third consecutive world title.

Jordan Rubalcava won twenty-one games and leads all of baseball in ERA at 2.85 — This is his age thirty-three season. He has two hundred and fifty-one career wins. He had three October starts in 1994 and 1995 combined. Jordan Rubalcava needs the ball in Game One of every series Sacramento plays. The Hot Corner predicted in spring training that the Rubalcava who pitches from the stretch with runners on base would be markedly improved following offseason mechanical work. What actually happened is that he is the best pitcher in the entire Fictional Baseball League this season.

Brian Strickler led all of baseball in strikeouts with two hundred and thirty-seven — He was seven and three with a 4.74 ERA on May 1st. He is seventeen and ten with a 3.35 ERA on September 29th. The Hot Corner has documented the week-by-week stabilization of this pitcher since May and the specific conclusion is that there are now two distinct Strickler versions — the dominant one and the exploitable one — and the dominant version has appeared in roughly three out of every four starts since June. Two hundred and thirty-seven strikeouts. First in baseball.

Bernardo Andretti won twenty games with five poor starts in the second half — Twenty wins, 3.52 ERA, All-Star selection, the pitcher who beat the Cy Young frontrunner in July and then allowed seven runs in two-thirds of an inning against Charlotte. Both things are true simultaneously and the October question is which pitcher shows up. The Hot Corner will note for posterity that in his last start at Boston, Andretti won his twentieth game by going six and a third innings and allowing two runs. The good version ended the season.

Edwin Musco finished with thirty-one home runs and one hundred and eight RBI — I don't not know how to write this sentence in a way that conveys its full significance. He is thirty-six years old. He has a history of gruesome injuries sustained during long career on his player card. He had three separate injury interruptions this season. He hit thirty-one home runs. For context: the best home run total of Musco's previous career was twenty-three. He is not supposed to do this. And he still somehow did it.

Alejandro Lopez stole seventy bases and hit twenty-nine home runs — His career high in steals was sixty-nine entering this year. A twenty-nine homer, seventy-steal season in the same year is a combination that, as far as the Hot Corner can research, has never been approached in this franchise's history. When healthy and on base, Lopez is one of the most dangerous offensive players in this league.

Benson is out for October and the bullpen must now account for his absence — He appeared in sixty-eight games and had twenty-three holds entering the final series. He was the bridge between the starters and Medina on nights when the game was close but not yet save territory. The remaining options — Lawson, Gonzalez, Prieto, Ryan, Scott — are capable, but Benson was the most reliable setup arm in the unit. The Hot Corner notes this not as a crisis but as the kind of real-world roster problem that October tends to expose.

Rodriguez's return and October readiness is the critical unknown — Twenty home runs, fifty-four RBI in limited availability this year. He returned from the hip impingement and went four for eight with two home runs and four RBI in his final four starts. His body held. The October lineup with Rodriguez at third base is significantly more dangerous than the October lineup with Bonilla or Blake rotating through. Jimmy Aces has managed his at-bats carefully. The hope is that the hip holds.

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AROUND THE LEAGUE — AND THE BRACKET

The playoff field:

American League: Sacramento has the bye. The Wild Card round is Baltimore versus Detroit, Houston versus Philadelphia, and Brooklyn versus Columbus. The Hot Corner's most likely ALDS matchup for Sacramento is the winner of Detroit-Baltimore, with the ALCS against Columbus. The specific number that defines the October landscape: Columbus won ninety-eight games this year and has Mike Flores in its rotation. Flores held Sacramento to fewer than four runs across his four starts against this lineup in 1996. That problem has not been solved.

National League: San Antonio has the bye. El Paso versus Albuquerque, Salt Lake City versus Long Beach, Tucson versus Phoenix. The NL bracket will produce an opponent for the World Series. The Hot Corner is watching San Antonio, which won ninety-four games and has never won a championship in franchise history.

Manuel Hernandez finished with seventy home runs and one hundred and eighty-one RBI. The Hot Corner has run out of words. Jorge Jaime of Baltimore set the all-time hits record with two hundred and twenty-six. The regular season produced two individual offensive seasons that will be discussed for as long as this league operates.

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THE INBOX — Final Regular Season Edition

From Lionel Teixeira of Sacramento's College Greens neighborhood, a man who translates legal documents from Portuguese into English and has developed such intimate familiarity with fine print that his friends no longer invite him to sign birthday cards, who asks: "Is this the best Sacramento team ever?"

Lionel, the 1995 team won one hundred and nine games and a World Series. The 1994 team won one hundred and seven and a World Series. This team won one hundred and eight and has not yet played a postseason game. The best Sacramento team ever is determined by what happens in October, not September. The Hot Corner's position: this rotation is the best in franchise history. Whether the team is the best in franchise history depends on games still to be played.

From Sunita Krishnamurthy of Roseville, an emergency room nurse who has worked nights for fourteen years and who says she has learned more about human nature from a waiting room at two in the morning than from any other source, who asks: "How worried are we about Benson?"

Sunita, genuinely concerned but not panicked. Benson was the bridge arm — the pitcher Aces called in the seventh with a one-run lead when Medina wasn't yet appropriate. Without him, Lawson and Gonzalez fill that role. Lawson is six and zero and has been dominant. Gonzalez has sixteen holds and a 3.20 ERA. The configuration is thinner but not toothless. The specific scenario I am watching for: a seven-inning start from Andretti or Espenoza where the bullpen needs four outs from a non-Medina arm. That is where Benson's absence will be felt most acutely.

From Theo Wachowski of Sacramento's Pocket neighborhood, a retired cartographer who spent thirty years drawing maps of places he never visited and who now spends his time visiting the places he drew, who asks: "Walk me into October. Where are we and what matters?"

Theo, here is where we are. The rotation sets up as Rubalcava-Strickler-Andretti-Espenoza for a four-game series, which is the deepest and most capable four-starter configuration this franchise has fielded. The lineup has Cruz, Musco, Perez, Lopez, Rodriguez, Lozano, Choi, and Florez. The bullpen has Medina and Lawson and Gonzalez. What matters is whether Andretti's two-start rough patches in September have been genuinely resolved or were merely delayed. What matters is whether Musco's shoulder stays intact through the first three rounds. What matters, more than anything else, is whether anyone has figured out what Flores is doing to this lineup and whether the coaching staff has a counter.

The Hot Corner does not have a prediction. The Hot Corner has been covering this team for four years, watched it win two consecutive championships, watched it build what may be the best rotation in franchise history, and still does not know what October will bring.

That is why they play the games.

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The Wild Card round begins October 1st. Sacramento waits. The rotation is in place. The lineup is set. Benson will be missed and Musco will be pushed and Rodriguez will be managed carefully and Rubalcava will take the ball in Game One wherever the Prayers play.

One hundred and eight wins. Twenty-fifth division title. The sixteenth championship is the only thing left to talk about.

The Hot Corner will be here for all of it. Thanks for the questions, the loyalty, and the four years of coming along for this ride. Now let's go win another one.

______________________________
Claude Playball is a baseball insider and analyst and host of the Hot Corner podcast, based in Sacramento, California.

04-22-2026, 11:24 AM	#307
liberty-ca Major Leagues Join Date: Oct 2017 Location: New Westminster, BC Posts: 444	THE HOT CORNER *Baseball coverage from the inside — Sacramento Prayers and the FBL* By Claude Playball \| Baseball Insider & Analyst \| Host, "Hot Corner" Podcast ______________________________ *September 13 – September 29, 1996 \| Final Regular Season Edition \| One Hundred and Eight Wins \| American League West Champions \| Your 1996 Sacramento Prayers* ______________________________ ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHT WINS. YEARS FROM NOW SOMEONE WILL SAY "REMEMBER THE '96 PRAYERS"? AND THEY WILL MEAN THIS. The season is over. Team's record is one hundred and eight wins, fifty-four losses. A first-round bye in the American League Division Series while the bracket plays out below. The team that takes the field in the ALDS will arrive rested, healthy — Andy Benson excepted, and I will come to that — and carrying the best ERA in baseball from a man named Jordan Rubalcava who is thirty-three years old and spent the entire year pitching the way people assumed he used to pitch when he was twenty-six. Let me give you the final numbers before I say anything else, because the numbers are the story. Jordan Rubalcava: 21-7, 2.85 ERA, 192 strikeouts. Leads all of baseball in ERA. Second in wins behind Gonzalez of Detroit at twenty-two. Brian Strickler: 17-10, 3.35 ERA, 237 strikeouts. Leads all of baseball in strikeouts. Bernardo Andretti: 20-7, 3.52 ERA, 171 strikeouts. Twenty wins. Mario Espenoza: 15-9, 3.35 ERA, 169 strikeouts. Danny St. Clair: 11-7, 4.25 ERA. Five starters. The highest ERA among the five is 4.25. Three of the top five ERA qualifiers in the entire league are on this rotation. Strickler leads all of baseball in strikeouts. The Hot Corner ran out of adjectives for this rotation in July and has been reusing them since. Edwin Musco: 31 home runs, 108 RBI, .289 average. Thirty-one home runs. Thirty-six years old. Body held up by iron will and duct tape. I've been watching his performances all year and I cannot explain how it is possible to do what he does on a daily bases. Alejandro Lopez: 29 home runs, 70 stolen bases. Seventy! His career high was sixty-nine. It is October. The Prayers have a bye. The bracket is forming. ______________________________ DID YOU CATCH THAT GAME? — WHAT THE SCORECARDS SAY @ Philadelphia, September 13-15 (2-1) The September 13th loss was Andretti's sixth of the year and his fourth genuinely poor start in the second half — five and a third innings, three runs, zero strikeouts. Young struck out thirteen Sacramento hitters and the lineup produced nothing. Seven to nothing. The ERA moved to 3.56. The Hot Corner has been tracking this pattern and I will assess it fully in the season summary below. Espenoza on September 14th responded with seven innings of one-run ball. Lopez drove in two with a sacrifice fly and a solo home run in the ninth. Five to one. Strickler on September 15th went six innings and allowed three runs while Perez hit a three-run homer in the sixth for the lead. Six to four was the final score. The Philadelphia series finished two-and-one. @ Boston, September 16-18 (3-0) Rodriguez returned from the IL and started at shortstop September 16th, with Musco removed from the game in the fourth inning after injuring his throwing arm. This is the Hot Corner's first mention of a new Musco injury and I want to document it: he threw a ball during the game, felt something, and was removed. He returned to action by September 17th. The injury is logged. Rubalcava on September 16th threw seven innings of one-run ball. MacDonald homered in the first, Lopez in the sixth. Seven to one in what turned out to be Rubalcava's nineteenth win. St. Clair on September 17th allowed four runs in six and two-thirds innings — back-to-back home runs by Martinez and Goldsberry in the fifth — but Lopez hit a three-run homer in the seventh to retake the lead. Seven to four. Lopez: two home runs in two games, five RBI on the night. He is at twenty-nine home runs for the season. Andretti on September 18th won his twentieth game with six and a third innings of two-run ball. Lozano homered, Hernandez homered, Perez homered. Seven to two. Andretti at twenty and six. I am filing his twentieth win as the redemptive counterpoint to the Philadelphia loss five days earlier. vs. San Jose, September 20-22 (3-0) Strickler on September 20th allowed three runs in five innings with three hit batsmen, left the game with a lead, and Lawson held two scoreless innings for the win. Choi hit two home runs. Six to three. Lawson is six and zero on the year with a 3.44 ERA. He has been one of the quietest excellent stories of this season. Rubalcava on September 21st threw eight innings of shutout ball, nine strikeouts, zero walks. His ERA after this start: 2.89. Five to nothing. His twentieth win. Espenoza on September 22nd held seven innings of three-hit shutout ball. Lozano hit two more home runs. Cruz homered. Musco homered. Seven to nothing. Eight consecutive wins for Sacramento Prayers. vs. Portland, September 23-25 (1-2) Portland won two of three, which is the only thing worth saying about these games before I say specific things. Andretti lost his seventh game on September 23rd to a pitcher named Ramon Mayorga who was one and zero on the year and threw six and two-thirds innings of one-run ball. Three to one. September 24th had Perez going four for four with seven RBI — a three-run home run in the eighth, a two-run single in the fifth, four total hits — in a twelve-to-seven win where St. Clair allowed six runs in five innings but the lineup kept scoring. Rodriguez homered twice counting from his return. Rodriguez hit his nineteenth and twentieth home runs in a Sacramento uniform, a detail that will matter when constructing the October lineup. September 25th was Strickler throwing eight innings of two-hit ball, a game score of seventy-eight, and losing one to nothing on a Perez sacrifice fly in the seventh by a team that was forty-nine and one-hundred-and-eight. The Hot Corner notes that this happened and has no satisfying explanation. vs. Seattle, September 27-29 (3-0) The final series of the regular season. Three games, three wins, two of them dramatic. Rubalcava on September 27th won his twenty-first game with six and two-thirds innings of three-hit ball. Musco homered in the sixth for three runs. Cruz and Lozano homered in the seventh. Nine to seven after the bullpen allowed six late. Rubalcava's ERA: 2.85. It leads all of baseball. September 28th was Andretti going seven and a third quality innings before Benson entered in the ninth and allowed a Penela home run. Cruz hit a walk-off double in the bottom of the ninth off Reyes. Six to five. Medina won in relief, his third win. And in the process of recording those final outs, Benson felt something in his shoulder and left the field. He is out for the postseason with shoulder inflammation. His season: six saves, 3.74 ERA, sixty-five innings. He will not pitch in October and he will be missed big time in playoffs. September 29th was the season finale, and it produced the most Sacramento ending imaginable. Espenoza allowed a Strahan grand slam in the fourth and the lineup trailed through five innings. Then Rodriguez hit a three-run homer in the sixth. Then Musco hit a two-run homer in the ninth off Gutierrez to tie it. Then Perez hit a walk-off single in the bottom of the ninth. Eight to seven. Gonzalez got the win. The final regular season game ended on a Perez single with the bases loaded. ______________________________ THE STORIES THAT DEFINE THIS SEASON I have written season summaries before. The 1993 team won one hundred and five games and lost in the ALDS. The 1994 team won one hundred and seven games and won the World Series. The 1995 team won one hundred and nine games and won the World Series. This team won one hundred and eight games. These are the numbers of a perennial contender, who is gunning for a third consecutive world title. Jordan Rubalcava won twenty-one games and leads all of baseball in ERA at 2.85 — This is his age thirty-three season. He has two hundred and fifty-one career wins. He had three October starts in 1994 and 1995 combined. Jordan Rubalcava needs the ball in Game One of every series Sacramento plays. The Hot Corner predicted in spring training that the Rubalcava who pitches from the stretch with runners on base would be markedly improved following offseason mechanical work. What actually happened is that he is the best pitcher in the entire Fictional Baseball League this season. Brian Strickler led all of baseball in strikeouts with two hundred and thirty-seven — He was seven and three with a 4.74 ERA on May 1st. He is seventeen and ten with a 3.35 ERA on September 29th. The Hot Corner has documented the week-by-week stabilization of this pitcher since May and the specific conclusion is that there are now two distinct Strickler versions — the dominant one and the exploitable one — and the dominant version has appeared in roughly three out of every four starts since June. Two hundred and thirty-seven strikeouts. First in baseball. Bernardo Andretti won twenty games with five poor starts in the second half — Twenty wins, 3.52 ERA, All-Star selection, the pitcher who beat the Cy Young frontrunner in July and then allowed seven runs in two-thirds of an inning against Charlotte. Both things are true simultaneously and the October question is which pitcher shows up. The Hot Corner will note for posterity that in his last start at Boston, Andretti won his twentieth game by going six and a third innings and allowing two runs. The good version ended the season. Edwin Musco finished with thirty-one home runs and one hundred and eight RBI — I don't not know how to write this sentence in a way that conveys its full significance. He is thirty-six years old. He has a history of gruesome injuries sustained during long career on his player card. He had three separate injury interruptions this season. He hit thirty-one home runs. For context: the best home run total of Musco's previous career was twenty-three. He is not supposed to do this. And he still somehow did it. Alejandro Lopez stole seventy bases and hit twenty-nine home runs — His career high in steals was sixty-nine entering this year. A twenty-nine homer, seventy-steal season in the same year is a combination that, as far as the Hot Corner can research, has never been approached in this franchise's history. When healthy and on base, Lopez is one of the most dangerous offensive players in this league. Benson is out for October and the bullpen must now account for his absence — He appeared in sixty-eight games and had twenty-three holds entering the final series. He was the bridge between the starters and Medina on nights when the game was close but not yet save territory. The remaining options — Lawson, Gonzalez, Prieto, Ryan, Scott — are capable, but Benson was the most reliable setup arm in the unit. The Hot Corner notes this not as a crisis but as the kind of real-world roster problem that October tends to expose. Rodriguez's return and October readiness is the critical unknown — Twenty home runs, fifty-four RBI in limited availability this year. He returned from the hip impingement and went four for eight with two home runs and four RBI in his final four starts. His body held. The October lineup with Rodriguez at third base is significantly more dangerous than the October lineup with Bonilla or Blake rotating through. Jimmy Aces has managed his at-bats carefully. The hope is that the hip holds. ______________________________ AROUND THE LEAGUE — AND THE BRACKET The playoff field: American League: Sacramento has the bye. The Wild Card round is Baltimore versus Detroit, Houston versus Philadelphia, and Brooklyn versus Columbus. The Hot Corner's most likely ALDS matchup for Sacramento is the winner of Detroit-Baltimore, with the ALCS against Columbus. The specific number that defines the October landscape: Columbus won ninety-eight games this year and has Mike Flores in its rotation. Flores held Sacramento to fewer than four runs across his four starts against this lineup in 1996. That problem has not been solved. National League: San Antonio has the bye. El Paso versus Albuquerque, Salt Lake City versus Long Beach, Tucson versus Phoenix. The NL bracket will produce an opponent for the World Series. The Hot Corner is watching San Antonio, which won ninety-four games and has never won a championship in franchise history. Manuel Hernandez finished with seventy home runs and one hundred and eighty-one RBI. The Hot Corner has run out of words. Jorge Jaime of Baltimore set the all-time hits record with two hundred and twenty-six. The regular season produced two individual offensive seasons that will be discussed for as long as this league operates. ______________________________ THE INBOX — Final Regular Season Edition From Lionel Teixeira of Sacramento's College Greens neighborhood, a man who translates legal documents from Portuguese into English and has developed such intimate familiarity with fine print that his friends no longer invite him to sign birthday cards, who asks: "Is this the best Sacramento team ever?" Lionel, the 1995 team won one hundred and nine games and a World Series. The 1994 team won one hundred and seven and a World Series. This team won one hundred and eight and has not yet played a postseason game. The best Sacramento team ever is determined by what happens in October, not September. The Hot Corner's position: this rotation is the best in franchise history. Whether the team is the best in franchise history depends on games still to be played. From Sunita Krishnamurthy of Roseville, an emergency room nurse who has worked nights for fourteen years and who says she has learned more about human nature from a waiting room at two in the morning than from any other source, who asks: "How worried are we about Benson?" Sunita, genuinely concerned but not panicked. Benson was the bridge arm — the pitcher Aces called in the seventh with a one-run lead when Medina wasn't yet appropriate. Without him, Lawson and Gonzalez fill that role. Lawson is six and zero and has been dominant. Gonzalez has sixteen holds and a 3.20 ERA. The configuration is thinner but not toothless. The specific scenario I am watching for: a seven-inning start from Andretti or Espenoza where the bullpen needs four outs from a non-Medina arm. That is where Benson's absence will be felt most acutely. From Theo Wachowski of Sacramento's Pocket neighborhood, a retired cartographer who spent thirty years drawing maps of places he never visited and who now spends his time visiting the places he drew, who asks: "Walk me into October. Where are we and what matters?" Theo, here is where we are. The rotation sets up as Rubalcava-Strickler-Andretti-Espenoza for a four-game series, which is the deepest and most capable four-starter configuration this franchise has fielded. The lineup has Cruz, Musco, Perez, Lopez, Rodriguez, Lozano, Choi, and Florez. The bullpen has Medina and Lawson and Gonzalez. What matters is whether Andretti's two-start rough patches in September have been genuinely resolved or were merely delayed. What matters is whether Musco's shoulder stays intact through the first three rounds. What matters, more than anything else, is whether anyone has figured out what Flores is doing to this lineup and whether the coaching staff has a counter. The Hot Corner does not have a prediction. The Hot Corner has been covering this team for four years, watched it win two consecutive championships, watched it build what may be the best rotation in franchise history, and still does not know what October will bring. That is why they play the games. ______________________________ The Wild Card round begins October 1st. Sacramento waits. The rotation is in place. The lineup is set. Benson will be missed and Musco will be pushed and Rodriguez will be managed carefully and Rubalcava will take the ball in Game One wherever the Prayers play. One hundred and eight wins. Twenty-fifth division title. The sixteenth championship is the only thing left to talk about. The Hot Corner will be here for all of it. Thanks for the questions, the loyalty, and the four years of coming along for this ride. Now let's go win another one. ______________________________ Claude Playball is a baseball insider and analyst and host of the Hot Corner podcast, based in Sacramento, California.