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liberty-ca · 04-07-2026, 09:23 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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June 29 – July 10, 1995 | Games 85–96 | All-Star Break Edition

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SIXTY-EIGHT AND TWENTY-EIGHT AT THE BREAK

The FBL pauses for its mid-season All-Star festivities, and Sacramento stops to draw breath at sixty-eight and twenty-eight — that's twenty games over .500 and twenty games ahead of Seattle in the AL West.

The twelve games immediately preceding the break went seven and five, which is honest baseball against quality competition rather than the organizational floor asserting itself against inferior opponents. Detroit won two of three at Cathedral Stadium. Seattle took one of three at home. Boston got swept in three. Houston split three. Two Andretti starts delivered opposite verdicts on the same question that has circled his name all season. Matt Adams hurt himself running the bases three times in five days. And through all of it the win total kept climbing.

Here is what happened, and then here is where this team stands when the second half begins.

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DID YOU CATCH THAT GAME? — WHAT THE SCORECARDS SAY

vs. Detroit, June 29 – July 1 (1-2)

Four hours and thirty-four minutes of baseball on June 29th produced a twelve-inning, ten-to-nine Detroit win that contained more individual performances than the Hot Corner has space to document completely. The summary: Rodriguez hit two home runs and drove in five. Alonzo went four for five with a home run, a double, and two singles while scoring three times. Andretti allowed five earned runs in five and a third innings. Detroit's Manuel Rodriguez — their third baseman — tied the AL extra-inning game record by hitting three doubles in a single contest. Prieto blew his fourth save with a three-run Alfonso home run in the eighth. Jimenez allowed the walk-off Guerrero double in the twelfth off a fastball that didn't locate. Nine runs scored, sixteen hits collected, sixty-two pitches thrown out of the bullpen after Andretti's exit, and the game ended one run short. The record moved to sixty-one and twenty-four.

Espenoza's June 30th response was deliberate and exact. Eight innings, three hits, one run, eighty-six pitches. Lopez and MacDonald both homered off Serrano in the first inning to build the only cushion the team would need. Two to one. His record moved to ten and one. Medina closed his twelfth save in thirteen chances. Team's record moved to sixty-two and twenty-four. Adams, who had returned from the oblique strain, left the game in the first inning with a new running-the-bases injury — day-to-day, the report said — which added the specific organizational concern that will recur throughout this article.

July 1st was Rubalcava having one of his worst outings of the season — five innings, six runs, five of them earned, Tattersall hitting a two-run home run in the first inning and a double in the third, the Preachers building a seven-to-two lead before two September home runs in the ninth off the Sacramento bench made the final score seven to four. Rubalcava's ERA rose from 1.88 to 2.15 on a single start. His record fell to ten and three. Detroit took the series two to one.

vs. Seattle, July 2-4 (2-1)

Strickler on July 2nd against Seattle pitched seven and a third innings of zero-run ball with three hits and seven strikeouts, reaching his tenth win. It was the kind of performance that makes a fan forget the previous two days. Prieto held two-thirds of an inning. Medina closed his thirteenth save. Three to nothing, Sacramento. The record moved to sixty-three and twenty-five. Adams, back in the lineup, left again in the eighth inning with another running-the-bases injury.

The July 3rd Seattle game produced a ten-to-nothing Sacramento win that featured Perez hitting a three-run home run in the fourth, MacDonald driving in three with a triple and a double, St. Clair going four and two-thirds innings of scoreless ball before Jimenez held the middle innings cleanly. Adams appeared in the game, hit a two-run double, then left the game again in the first inning with another running-the-bases injury. Three appearances in five days. Three exits with running-the-bases injuries. The organizational alarm on Adams has not reached highest level yet, but the pattern is loud.

July 4th was Pedro Hernandez throwing seven innings of two-hit ball against Sacramento — seven innings, two hits, eight strikeouts, the second time this Seattle pitcher has held the Sacramento offense to minimal production in the same season. Andretti started and went six and two-thirds innings of two-run ball, his record falling to eleven and five on a two-to-one final. The series ended two to one in Sacramento's favor.

@ Boston, July 5-7 (3-0)

The Boston series produced the most comfortable three days of baseball Sacramento played in this entire stretch. Game One on July 5th was Espenoza's eleventh win — five and two-thirds innings, three runs allowed, with Lopez hitting two home runs and Rodriguez hitting his eighteenth as the Sacramento offense generated eleven runs against Engeitado and the Boston staff. Perez went four for five with a home run and two doubles. Eleven to three. Espenoza moved to eleven and one.

Rubalcava's July 6th start against Boston produced five innings of four-run ball that qualified as his second difficult outing in five starts — not the dominant Rubalcava, but the offense scored eleven runs anyway. MacDonald had three hits and two RBI. Hernandez had three hits and three RBI in the first inning alone as Sacramento scored five times before the second out. Eleven to six. Rubalcava moved to eleven and three and the ERA, after two rough starts in a row, settled at 2.34.

Strickler closed the Boston sweep on July 7th with five innings of four-run ball — Ruiz hitting his thirty-first home run off him in the first inning, Goldsberry adding a solo shot — before Jimenez held three clean innings and Lopez hit a three-run home run in the ninth off House to extend a rally that Mollohan started with a home run in the fourth. Eleven to five. Strickler moved to eleven and two. Boston's record fell to thirty-seven and fifty-six with the sweep, and the gap between where they thought this season might go and where it has gone is now the most sobering organizational story in the AL East.

vs. Houston, July 8-10 (1-2)

The Houston series arrived home and delivered the specific kind of results that keep a season honest. Game One on July 8th was St. Clair against Gonzales — St. Clair went six and two-thirds innings of three-run ball, Schoff put two Houston runs in the first inning with a single before Sacramento could score, and the lineup managed three hits against a Houston pitching staff that was simply better that afternoon. Three to one, Houston. St. Clair's record fell to one and three. His ERA at 4.12 confirms that the finger blister's impact on his effectiveness runs deeper than the physical timeline.

Game Two on July 9th was Andretti in the specific excellent configuration — five and two-thirds innings, three runs, eleven Houston hits absorbed without surrendering the game. Adams hit a three-run home run in the third. Lopez went four for four with a home run and three singles, two RBI, and two runs scored in his best individual game in weeks. Eight to four. Andretti moved to twelve and five. The ERA after this win: 4.31. Twelve wins, the FBL leader, with an ERA that does not match the win total. Both things are true simultaneously.

Espenoza on July 10th was the version of Espenoza who pitched eight shutout innings against Boston last month — seven and a third innings, one earned run, eight strikeouts, held with a one-to-zero lead through five innings until Aredondo hit a three-run home run in the sixth. Three to one, Houston. Espenoza's record fell to eleven and two, his ERA rose to 3.20. The series split two to one in Houston's favor.

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THE STORIES THAT DEFINE THIS STRETCH

Espenoza was the AL Pitcher of the Month for June — Five and zero, 2.59 ERA, six starts, thirty-three strikeouts in forty-one and two-thirds innings. The award is well deserved and the numbers justify it without any doubt. The pitcher who carried a 4-plus ERA into mid-May has posted back-to-back months of excellent work and enters the All-Star break at eleven and two with a 3.20 ERA and the specific momentum that June built. The Hot Corner noted his transformation in real time. The award confirms the observation.

Rubalcava is the All-Star Game starter and still the best pitcher in baseball — Eleven and three, 2.34 ERA, one hundred and thirty-two strikeouts, a WHIP under one. Two difficult starts in the last five games have nudged his ERA upward without altering the fundamental reality: nobody in baseball is pitching at this level. Sacramento sent four All-Stars — Rubalcava starting, Cruz at second base, Prieto and Lawson representing the bullpen. The specific honor of having two relievers selected to the AL roster at the same time is worth pausing to appreciate.

The Adams situation requires attention — Three exits from three consecutive games with running-the-bases injuries between June 30th and July 3rd. The injury report entering the break lists no IL designation, which means the organization has assessed the risk and decided day-to-day management is appropriate. But three separate events in five days involving the same player and the same cause is pattern-level information. The Hot Corner is watching. If Adams cannot stay on the field through late July, the outfield configuration — already missing Dodge's production behind the plate and operating with Mollohan, Blake, and Jesus Hernandez as depth — becomes a legitimate second-half concern.

The draft class arrived, and Sacramento selected second overall — Tim Van Ham, an eighteen-year-old center field prospect out of high school, went second overall with the pick the Prayers received from the expansion draft process. Sacramento also selected Pat Chambers (fifteenth overall), Mike Perez (nineteenth overall), and closer prospect Jimmy Leaym (twenty-fifth overall) in the first round, plus catcher David Burns in the second round. Van Ham going second overall with Sacramento carrying the second pick speaks to the organization's comfort with investing in high-ceiling developmental assets rather than short-timeline college bats. Ha-joon Choi is already fifth in baseball at Triple-A. Van Ham is now in the pipeline behind him.

The twelve-inning Detroit game and what Andretti's season actually looks like — Twelve wins leads the FBL. The ERA is 4.31. Both of those facts are true. The starts that go well produce game scores in the fifties and sixties and wins. The starts that go badly produce game scores in the twenties and losses. June 29th's game score of 35 against Detroit and July 6th's score of 37 against Boston sit alongside a June 9th score of 62 and a July 9th score of 37. The Hot Corner has now documented this pattern in four consecutive articles. The organizational challenge for the second half: Andretti needs to reduce the frequency of the bad starts, not merely increase the frequency of the good ones. Twelve wins in the first half at a 4.31 ERA is a useful pitcher. Twelve wins in the first half at a 4.31 ERA in a playoff rotation is a question that does not yet have an answer.

Columbus at sixty-one and thirty-five — The team that swept Sacramento in May has now posted the best first-half record in the American League outside of Sacramento. The forty-game gap in wins between these two organizations has shrunk to seven. Columbus enters the second half as the most dangerous potential playoff opponent in the AL, and their lead over Detroit in the Central at ten games means they are likely the AL Central representative in October. They have beaten Sacramento five times in six meetings. The Hot Corner files this for September and beyond.

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AROUND THE LEAGUE

The AL wild card standings at the break have Detroit at fifty-one and forty-five leading Charlotte by two games. Seattle, Philadelphia, Houston, and Brooklyn are clustered between forty-seven and forty-nine and forty-seven and forty-nine, a six-team pack within four games of the wild card lead that will produce clarifying results in the second half's opening weeks.

San Antonio is the NL's best story — fifty-seven and thirty-nine, first in the NL Central, having won eighteen of their last twenty-five games. Los Angeles leads the NL Pacific at fifty-four and forty-two. Tucson leads the Desert Division at fifty-three and forty-three. The NL playoff picture involves at least five teams who can make a legitimate case for October. The World Series opponent, if the Prayers get there, will have earned its place.

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THE INBOX — Questions worth answering

From Janet Alvarez of Elk Grove, a school librarian who has attended every home opener since 1989 and asks: "Be honest — how worried should we be about the second half? We looked beatable in some of those games."

Janet, honest answer: the concern is narrow but real. The three things the Hot Corner would watch in the second half are Adams staying healthy, Andretti's start quality stabilizing in the right direction, and the rotation depth below the top four remaining workable. The division lead is twenty games and the race is over. But a team that allows ten runs in a twelve-inning loss to Detroit and five runs in one-third of an inning from Jimenez at Brooklyn is showing organizational seams that matter in October when the margin for error disappears. None of it is alarming given the forty-game lead. All of it is worth tracking.

From Eddie Nakamura of Rancho Cordova, a mechanic who has been listening to Hot Corner since the podcast launched and who wants to know: "Is Lopez going to win the stolen base crown?"

Eddie, Lopez has forty-five stolen bases in ninety-six games. That is a ninety-four-steal pace for a full season. The AL leader in steals through the break — looking at the available data — is Lopez. Whether he holds the pace through September depends on the finger blister and the organization's approach to running in meaningless games once the division title is clinched. The Hot Corner's best guess: somewhere between fifty-eight and sixty-five steals, which would be the most dominant stolen base season Sacramento has seen since the mid-eighties. If he stays healthy, the crown is his.

From Phil Oganesian of Sacramento's East Sacramento neighborhood, a retired city bus driver and thirty-year Sacramento fan, who asks: "Who is the second-half X-factor on this team — the guy nobody's watching who could decide October?"

Phil, this is the best question in this mailbag and the answer is Edwin Medina. Ten saves in fifteen opportunities with a 1.08 ERA over that span. He inherited the closer role when Dodge's shoulder ended his season in May, and he has been the most efficient inning in the bullpen since that moment. Nobody is writing national columns about Edwin Medina. Nobody mentioned him in the All-Star conversation. He is twenty-seven years old, throws with deception and late movement, and has not allowed a run in fifteen consecutive high-leverage appearances. The October closing situation runs through Medina, and nobody is watching him the way they should be. Watch him.

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The second half opens after the All-Star break with Portland on the road, then Nashville at home. The rotation rests. Musco is one week from return eligibility — the partially torn labrum has been mending since April, and the second half may bring the first glimpse of a healthy Sacramento shortstop for the first time since Game Fourteen of the season. Sixty-eight and twenty-eight. The best team in the American League, probably the best team in baseball, with a twenty-game lead and questions in the fifth starter slot and the back half of the bullpen that July and August will need to answer before October arrives.

The second half starts now.

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.

04-07-2026, 09:23 AM	#284
liberty-ca All Star Reserve Join Date: Oct 2017 Location: New Westminster, BC Posts: 510	THE HOT CORNER *Baseball coverage from the inside — Sacramento Prayers and the FBL* By Claude Playball \| Baseball Insider & Analyst \| Host, "Hot Corner" Podcast ______________________________ *June 29 – July 10, 1995 \| Games 85–96 \| All-Star Break Edition* ______________________________ SIXTY-EIGHT AND TWENTY-EIGHT AT THE BREAK The FBL pauses for its mid-season All-Star festivities, and Sacramento stops to draw breath at sixty-eight and twenty-eight — that's twenty games over .500 and twenty games ahead of Seattle in the AL West. The twelve games immediately preceding the break went seven and five, which is honest baseball against quality competition rather than the organizational floor asserting itself against inferior opponents. Detroit won two of three at Cathedral Stadium. Seattle took one of three at home. Boston got swept in three. Houston split three. Two Andretti starts delivered opposite verdicts on the same question that has circled his name all season. Matt Adams hurt himself running the bases three times in five days. And through all of it the win total kept climbing. Here is what happened, and then here is where this team stands when the second half begins. ______________________________ DID YOU CATCH THAT GAME? — WHAT THE SCORECARDS SAY vs. Detroit, June 29 – July 1 (1-2) Four hours and thirty-four minutes of baseball on June 29th produced a twelve-inning, ten-to-nine Detroit win that contained more individual performances than the Hot Corner has space to document completely. The summary: Rodriguez hit two home runs and drove in five. Alonzo went four for five with a home run, a double, and two singles while scoring three times. Andretti allowed five earned runs in five and a third innings. Detroit's Manuel Rodriguez — their third baseman — tied the AL extra-inning game record by hitting three doubles in a single contest. Prieto blew his fourth save with a three-run Alfonso home run in the eighth. Jimenez allowed the walk-off Guerrero double in the twelfth off a fastball that didn't locate. Nine runs scored, sixteen hits collected, sixty-two pitches thrown out of the bullpen after Andretti's exit, and the game ended one run short. The record moved to sixty-one and twenty-four. Espenoza's June 30th response was deliberate and exact. Eight innings, three hits, one run, eighty-six pitches. Lopez and MacDonald both homered off Serrano in the first inning to build the only cushion the team would need. Two to one. His record moved to ten and one. Medina closed his twelfth save in thirteen chances. Team's record moved to sixty-two and twenty-four. Adams, who had returned from the oblique strain, left the game in the first inning with a new running-the-bases injury — day-to-day, the report said — which added the specific organizational concern that will recur throughout this article. July 1st was Rubalcava having one of his worst outings of the season — five innings, six runs, five of them earned, Tattersall hitting a two-run home run in the first inning and a double in the third, the Preachers building a seven-to-two lead before two September home runs in the ninth off the Sacramento bench made the final score seven to four. Rubalcava's ERA rose from 1.88 to 2.15 on a single start. His record fell to ten and three. Detroit took the series two to one. vs. Seattle, July 2-4 (2-1) Strickler on July 2nd against Seattle pitched seven and a third innings of zero-run ball with three hits and seven strikeouts, reaching his tenth win. It was the kind of performance that makes a fan forget the previous two days. Prieto held two-thirds of an inning. Medina closed his thirteenth save. Three to nothing, Sacramento. The record moved to sixty-three and twenty-five. Adams, back in the lineup, left again in the eighth inning with another running-the-bases injury. The July 3rd Seattle game produced a ten-to-nothing Sacramento win that featured Perez hitting a three-run home run in the fourth, MacDonald driving in three with a triple and a double, St. Clair going four and two-thirds innings of scoreless ball before Jimenez held the middle innings cleanly. Adams appeared in the game, hit a two-run double, then left the game again in the first inning with another running-the-bases injury. Three appearances in five days. Three exits with running-the-bases injuries. The organizational alarm on Adams has not reached highest level yet, but the pattern is loud. July 4th was Pedro Hernandez throwing seven innings of two-hit ball against Sacramento — seven innings, two hits, eight strikeouts, the second time this Seattle pitcher has held the Sacramento offense to minimal production in the same season. Andretti started and went six and two-thirds innings of two-run ball, his record falling to eleven and five on a two-to-one final. The series ended two to one in Sacramento's favor. @ Boston, July 5-7 (3-0) The Boston series produced the most comfortable three days of baseball Sacramento played in this entire stretch. Game One on July 5th was Espenoza's eleventh win — five and two-thirds innings, three runs allowed, with Lopez hitting two home runs and Rodriguez hitting his eighteenth as the Sacramento offense generated eleven runs against Engeitado and the Boston staff. Perez went four for five with a home run and two doubles. Eleven to three. Espenoza moved to eleven and one. Rubalcava's July 6th start against Boston produced five innings of four-run ball that qualified as his second difficult outing in five starts — not the dominant Rubalcava, but the offense scored eleven runs anyway. MacDonald had three hits and two RBI. Hernandez had three hits and three RBI in the first inning alone as Sacramento scored five times before the second out. Eleven to six. Rubalcava moved to eleven and three and the ERA, after two rough starts in a row, settled at 2.34. Strickler closed the Boston sweep on July 7th with five innings of four-run ball — Ruiz hitting his thirty-first home run off him in the first inning, Goldsberry adding a solo shot — before Jimenez held three clean innings and Lopez hit a three-run home run in the ninth off House to extend a rally that Mollohan started with a home run in the fourth. Eleven to five. Strickler moved to eleven and two. Boston's record fell to thirty-seven and fifty-six with the sweep, and the gap between where they thought this season might go and where it has gone is now the most sobering organizational story in the AL East. vs. Houston, July 8-10 (1-2) The Houston series arrived home and delivered the specific kind of results that keep a season honest. Game One on July 8th was St. Clair against Gonzales — St. Clair went six and two-thirds innings of three-run ball, Schoff put two Houston runs in the first inning with a single before Sacramento could score, and the lineup managed three hits against a Houston pitching staff that was simply better that afternoon. Three to one, Houston. St. Clair's record fell to one and three. His ERA at 4.12 confirms that the finger blister's impact on his effectiveness runs deeper than the physical timeline. Game Two on July 9th was Andretti in the specific excellent configuration — five and two-thirds innings, three runs, eleven Houston hits absorbed without surrendering the game. Adams hit a three-run home run in the third. Lopez went four for four with a home run and three singles, two RBI, and two runs scored in his best individual game in weeks. Eight to four. Andretti moved to twelve and five. The ERA after this win: 4.31. Twelve wins, the FBL leader, with an ERA that does not match the win total. Both things are true simultaneously. Espenoza on July 10th was the version of Espenoza who pitched eight shutout innings against Boston last month — seven and a third innings, one earned run, eight strikeouts, held with a one-to-zero lead through five innings until Aredondo hit a three-run home run in the sixth. Three to one, Houston. Espenoza's record fell to eleven and two, his ERA rose to 3.20. The series split two to one in Houston's favor. ______________________________ THE STORIES THAT DEFINE THIS STRETCH Espenoza was the AL Pitcher of the Month for June — Five and zero, 2.59 ERA, six starts, thirty-three strikeouts in forty-one and two-thirds innings. The award is well deserved and the numbers justify it without any doubt. The pitcher who carried a 4-plus ERA into mid-May has posted back-to-back months of excellent work and enters the All-Star break at eleven and two with a 3.20 ERA and the specific momentum that June built. The Hot Corner noted his transformation in real time. The award confirms the observation. Rubalcava is the All-Star Game starter and still the best pitcher in baseball — Eleven and three, 2.34 ERA, one hundred and thirty-two strikeouts, a WHIP under one. Two difficult starts in the last five games have nudged his ERA upward without altering the fundamental reality: nobody in baseball is pitching at this level. Sacramento sent four All-Stars — Rubalcava starting, Cruz at second base, Prieto and Lawson representing the bullpen. The specific honor of having two relievers selected to the AL roster at the same time is worth pausing to appreciate. The Adams situation requires attention — Three exits from three consecutive games with running-the-bases injuries between June 30th and July 3rd. The injury report entering the break lists no IL designation, which means the organization has assessed the risk and decided day-to-day management is appropriate. But three separate events in five days involving the same player and the same cause is pattern-level information. The Hot Corner is watching. If Adams cannot stay on the field through late July, the outfield configuration — already missing Dodge's production behind the plate and operating with Mollohan, Blake, and Jesus Hernandez as depth — becomes a legitimate second-half concern. The draft class arrived, and Sacramento selected second overall — Tim Van Ham, an eighteen-year-old center field prospect out of high school, went second overall with the pick the Prayers received from the expansion draft process. Sacramento also selected Pat Chambers (fifteenth overall), Mike Perez (nineteenth overall), and closer prospect Jimmy Leaym (twenty-fifth overall) in the first round, plus catcher David Burns in the second round. Van Ham going second overall with Sacramento carrying the second pick speaks to the organization's comfort with investing in high-ceiling developmental assets rather than short-timeline college bats. Ha-joon Choi is already fifth in baseball at Triple-A. Van Ham is now in the pipeline behind him. The twelve-inning Detroit game and what Andretti's season actually looks like — Twelve wins leads the FBL. The ERA is 4.31. Both of those facts are true. The starts that go well produce game scores in the fifties and sixties and wins. The starts that go badly produce game scores in the twenties and losses. June 29th's game score of 35 against Detroit and July 6th's score of 37 against Boston sit alongside a June 9th score of 62 and a July 9th score of 37. The Hot Corner has now documented this pattern in four consecutive articles. The organizational challenge for the second half: Andretti needs to reduce the frequency of the bad starts, not merely increase the frequency of the good ones. Twelve wins in the first half at a 4.31 ERA is a useful pitcher. Twelve wins in the first half at a 4.31 ERA in a playoff rotation is a question that does not yet have an answer. Columbus at sixty-one and thirty-five — The team that swept Sacramento in May has now posted the best first-half record in the American League outside of Sacramento. The forty-game gap in wins between these two organizations has shrunk to seven. Columbus enters the second half as the most dangerous potential playoff opponent in the AL, and their lead over Detroit in the Central at ten games means they are likely the AL Central representative in October. They have beaten Sacramento five times in six meetings. The Hot Corner files this for September and beyond. ______________________________ AROUND THE LEAGUE The AL wild card standings at the break have Detroit at fifty-one and forty-five leading Charlotte by two games. Seattle, Philadelphia, Houston, and Brooklyn are clustered between forty-seven and forty-nine and forty-seven and forty-nine, a six-team pack within four games of the wild card lead that will produce clarifying results in the second half's opening weeks. San Antonio is the NL's best story — fifty-seven and thirty-nine, first in the NL Central, having won eighteen of their last twenty-five games. Los Angeles leads the NL Pacific at fifty-four and forty-two. Tucson leads the Desert Division at fifty-three and forty-three. The NL playoff picture involves at least five teams who can make a legitimate case for October. The World Series opponent, if the Prayers get there, will have earned its place. ______________________________ THE INBOX — Questions worth answering From Janet Alvarez of Elk Grove, a school librarian who has attended every home opener since 1989 and asks: "Be honest — how worried should we be about the second half? We looked beatable in some of those games." Janet, honest answer: the concern is narrow but real. The three things the Hot Corner would watch in the second half are Adams staying healthy, Andretti's start quality stabilizing in the right direction, and the rotation depth below the top four remaining workable. The division lead is twenty games and the race is over. But a team that allows ten runs in a twelve-inning loss to Detroit and five runs in one-third of an inning from Jimenez at Brooklyn is showing organizational seams that matter in October when the margin for error disappears. None of it is alarming given the forty-game lead. All of it is worth tracking. From Eddie Nakamura of Rancho Cordova, a mechanic who has been listening to Hot Corner since the podcast launched and who wants to know: "Is Lopez going to win the stolen base crown?" Eddie, Lopez has forty-five stolen bases in ninety-six games. That is a ninety-four-steal pace for a full season. The AL leader in steals through the break — looking at the available data — is Lopez. Whether he holds the pace through September depends on the finger blister and the organization's approach to running in meaningless games once the division title is clinched. The Hot Corner's best guess: somewhere between fifty-eight and sixty-five steals, which would be the most dominant stolen base season Sacramento has seen since the mid-eighties. If he stays healthy, the crown is his. From Phil Oganesian of Sacramento's East Sacramento neighborhood, a retired city bus driver and thirty-year Sacramento fan, who asks: "Who is the second-half X-factor on this team — the guy nobody's watching who could decide October?" Phil, this is the best question in this mailbag and the answer is Edwin Medina. Ten saves in fifteen opportunities with a 1.08 ERA over that span. He inherited the closer role when Dodge's shoulder ended his season in May, and he has been the most efficient inning in the bullpen since that moment. Nobody is writing national columns about Edwin Medina. Nobody mentioned him in the All-Star conversation. He is twenty-seven years old, throws with deception and late movement, and has not allowed a run in fifteen consecutive high-leverage appearances. The October closing situation runs through Medina, and nobody is watching him the way they should be. Watch him. ______________________________ The second half opens after the All-Star break with Portland on the road, then Nashville at home. The rotation rests. Musco is one week from return eligibility — the partially torn labrum has been mending since April, and the second half may bring the first glimpse of a healthy Sacramento shortstop for the first time since Game Fourteen of the season. Sixty-eight and twenty-eight. The best team in the American League, probably the best team in baseball, with a twenty-game lead and questions in the fifth starter slot and the back half of the bullpen that July and August will need to answer before October arrives. The second half starts now. Got a question for the mailbag? Find the Hot Corner wherever you get your podcasts. ______________________________ Claude Playball is a baseball insider and analyst and host of the Hot Corner podcast, based in Sacramento, California.