Gotta Love Being Home

It was a nice win for the Twins yesterday afternoon as they took 2 of 3 from the Tigers and reasserted themselves as the division leaders. Kevin Slowey was solid for 6 innings and the offense scored more than 5 runs for the 3rd straight game. The Twins are now 25-14 at home (against an 18-21 road record) and have the Rays coming in for a 4-game set this weekend. This team looks very different at home and I did a little research to find out just how different. Let's start with the starting pitchers:


Nick Blackburn
Home ERA: 3.47
Road ERA: 9.40

Scott Baker
Home ERA: 3.55
Road ERA: 6.55

Kevin Slowey
Home ERA: 3.54
Road ERA: 6.11

Carl "Call me Ace" Pavano
Home ERA: 3.81
Road ERA: 2.82

Francisco Liriano
Home ERA: 3.12
Road ERA: 3.81

At home, the Twins have 5 solid starting pitchers and they are 11 games over .500. On the road, they have Pavano and Liriano and that's about it, and they are 3 games under .500. Let's take a look at a few of the hitters.

O-Dog Hudson
Home Line: .302/.405/.472
Road Line: .277/.315/.333

Jason Kubel
Home Line: .279/.366/.500
Road Line: .252/.341/.403

Delmon Young
Home Line: .319/.349/.466
Road Line: .268/.309/.472

D-Span
Home Line: .382/.460/.500
Road Line: .192/.257/.293

Alright, so that's your lead-off hitter, your two-hole guy, and your 5 and 6 hitters who pretty much blow on the road. Now I'm starting to see why this team really struggles on the road, their pitchers aren't very good and a majority of the lineup doesn't produce. On the flip-side, it's not hard to see why this team is dominant at home. They get on-base and they hit for power, a good combination for offensive production.

This weekend's series against the Rays should be interesting, mainly because the Rays are a much better road team (25-13) than they are at home (20-19), though if you've caught any part of a Rays home game lately, you'd understand why. The Rays have been scuffling a bit lately so hopefully the Twins can take advantage. The pitching matchups are as follows; (7/1) Niemann v. Pavano, (7/2) Price v. Baker, (7/3) Davis v. Liriano, (7/4) Shields v. Blackburn