SF Giants: Home Vs. Away/ Fantastic Vs. Dreadful

Like any young team, the San Francisco Giants thrive at home and barely tread water on the road.

With one of the best home records in all of baseball (31-15), the Giants would seem poised to burn into the '09 MLB Playoffs, but their horrible play on the road (19-29) is keeping them down.

Pitching has been the strength of this team, and it shows in an examination of their performances at home vs. away. 

Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain have each been extremely consistent throughout the whole year. Lincecum is 5-1 at home with a 2.44 ERA and 10.9 strikeouts per nine inning pitched. On the road, he maintains nearly identical numbers: 5-2 record, 2.45 ERA, 10.8 strikeouts per nine innings pitched.

In the same fashion, Cain is 6-1 at home and 5-1 away His 2.26 home ERA only jumps to 2.39 on the road. 

Then some inconsistencies develop among the other Giants pitchers, the ones who are not so unbelievably strong.

Jonathan Sanchez maintains a quality ERA of 3.27 and a 3-1 record at home, but on the road he is winless at 0-7 with a bloated 6.02 ERA.

Similarily but not quite as poorly as Sanchez, closer Brian Wilson's 2.49 home ERA jumps to 4.76 on the road. 

Overall, the Giants' pitching staff has an incredible 3.17 home ERA and maintains a strong 4.04 ERA on the road, but with a lack of offense, those 4.04 runs seem more like six or seven runs.

The Giants home field, AT&T Park, is widely known to be a pitcher's park because of the spacious territory in right-center field and the wind coming off of the bay that knocks balls down. Even with these conditions, the Giants are hitting .274 at home with a .328 on-base percentage. 

On the road, they are hitting .243 with a .287 on-base percentage.

The main reason is comfort. Young guys like Pablo Sandoval are used to the field and the characteristics of AT&T Park, but the road is always a mystery—or so it seems. 

Looking at the numbers, Sandoval is hitting a superhuman .390 by the bay with a superb .439 OBP. Nine of his 15 home runs have been hit at home, and 34 of his 56 RBIs have also come in a home uniform.

His production on the road, however, is a different story. Sandoval is hitting .260 with a .309 OBP in other parks around the league. A .130 drop in batting average on the road explains some of the difficulties, but it is not as big of a let down as a few of the other Giants players.

Bengie Molina is hitting .296 at home compared to .243 on the road, but his home run and RBI totals remain nearly identical (six homers at home vs. five on the road, and 25 RBIs both at home and on the road). 

Then there is Travis Ishikawa. It might surprise some that he is hitting .353 at home. At the same time, he barely hitting the ball on the road with a .144 average in 90 at-bats.  Five of his seven home runs have come at home, and his OBP is .230 on the road compared to .382 at home. 

In addition, Fred Lewis, who through his struggles is hitting .297 at home, is hitting only .197 at home in 117 at-bats. 

The one contradiction to this trend, however, is Aaron Rowand. His .266 batting average at home jumps to .281 on the road. 

The lack of offense on the road is the overwhelming issue for the young Giants team, but with experience, the hits will come and complement their quickly blossoming pitching staff.