Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Why can't the Phillies win at home?

(AP Photo/Tom Mihalek)
All right, this is getting ridiculous. After watching the Phillies in a soggy 7-1 loss at home to the Blue Jays on Wednesday night, I have finally hit my breaking point with them. Why are they so bad at home? After tonight's loss, the Phillies are 13-18 at home on the season. Contrast that with a 23-9 record on the road, and you have a really confounding situation.

Why are the Phillies so bad at home? Is it just bad luck and a small sample size? Possibly. Are they playing tougher teams at home than on the road? Not really. Are they simply tight at home and carefree on the road? I wish I could answer that.

Looking at the rest of their records in other situations, the Phillies don't have any other statistical anomalies:
Day: 12-7
Night: 24-19
Extra Inning Games: 6-4
vs. NL East: 19-12
vs. NL Central: 5-3
vs. NL West: 9-7
vs. AL: 3-5
vs. RHP: 21-19
vs. LHP: 15-8

The only record in there that is below .500 is in Interleaugue play, but they've only played 8 games and most have been against the best teams in the AL, the Red Sox and Yankees.

So, anyone have an answer? Is it only at home when their below average starting pitching, taxed bullpen and leadoff hitter who can't get on base actually keeps them from winning games? Are the "meanest fans in baseball" being too mean to them at home? It's getting to the point where we should root for them to be the NL Wild Card team because then they would never have home field advantage in the playoffs.

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