« Download today's sports cover | Main | Grzebien, Horgan join the fun »

June 18, 2008

Red Sox aren't the only team that can't win on the road

By Rick Hummel
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

ST. LOUIS - The only three teams in the major leagues that had winning records on the road before last weekend all would be in the playoffs if they started today. The Los Angeles Angels (21-12) and the Philadelphia Phillies (19-15 entering last weekend) lead their divisions, and the Cardinals (19-15) lead in the early stages of the wild-card race in the National League.

For a team to have a winning record on the road - no mean feat these days - one of its star players generally leads the way. In the Angels' case, reliever Frankie "K-Rod" Rodriguez has been almost unbelievable with 17 saves in 18 road games, a 1.06 earned-run average and a 0.97 opponents' batting average against.

Philadelphia reliever Brad Lidge has been almost as good on the road, saving 11 games in 15 appearances on the road with a 0.60 ERA and .151 opponents' batting average.

Then there is the Cardinals' Ryan Ludwick, who, apparently, has reached star status now. He is hitting .333 away from home with 11 doubles, 12 homers, 36 runs batted in and a .746 slugging percentage.

Inasmuch as there are 30 big-league teams, you no doubt have surmised that there were a stunning 27 teams that didn't have a winning record on the road before the weekend, including the once proud Atlanta Braves, who had lost 17 of their last 20 road games and carried a dismal 7-24 road mark into Anaheim last weekend.

While there were 27 road non-warriors, 25 teams had winning records at home. Not surprisingly, four of the five defectors were last-place clubs - Washington, Kansas City, Seattle and Colorado - although Colorado is at least at .500 at 16-16.

Before this latest rash of interleague play, the home winning percentage this year was .576.
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, this is the highest since the era of the liveliest ball ever, 1931, when home teams were at. 582. The only year close to that was 1978 at .573.

The reasons?

"I've been asked this many times by people in baseball and people outside it," said Cardinals manager Tony La Russa. And? "No clue," he said.

Two of the three teams with the best records in baseball, the Chicago Cubs and Boston Red Sox, have the best home records at 29-8 and 28-7, respectively. It would be easy to ascribe some of the advantage those teams have to the peculiarities of their own ancient parks except that the Cubs have had dozens of losing seasons at home in the long and storied history of Wrigley Field.

This theory doesn't hold water in Atlanta, where by-the-book Turner Field seemingly has no real home-field advantage, yet the Braves are 25-11 there.

In the Braves' case, notably, and perhaps in others, the methods in which managers use their closers may make a difference. Generally, a manager on the road won't use his closer until he gets ahead - even in extra innings - while at home he would use him in the ninth inning of a tie game.

The relief-strapped Braves are exhibit A of that theory because they entered last weekend with a ridiculous 3-18 record in one-run games and 21 straight one-run losses on the road dating to last August. No wonder oft-injured John Smoltz wanted to come back as a reliever and then got hurt again in the first game he pitched as he blew a lead.

Chipper Jones, who has hit .400 throughout all this, is as puzzled as everyone else. Speaking to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Jones said, "Everybody else executes. We don't."

Posted by Mike McDermott  at 8:40 AM to Red Sox | Permalink

Comments

Post a comment

Please be civil. Vicious comments, personal attacks and profanity won't be published.

Name:

Email Address:

URL:
Remember Me? YesNo

Comments: (you may use HTML tags for style)