Sometimes a stat just jumps out at us here at Baseball Jerks. We call it a ‘Jerk-Stat.’ A Jerk-Stat is a stat that echoes the futility we see sometimes see on the field.
Today’s Jerk-Stat: Home teams are just 2-6 during the playoffs entering Monday’s Divisional Series games.
Danny Knobler of CBSSports.com tweeted:
Of 10 playoff teams, only 2 had losing records on road regular season: Tigers, Cardinals.
— DKnobler (@DKnobler) October 8, 2012
Let’s look at the road records of the teams in the playoffs:
Washington Nationals: 48-33 (WSH leads NLDS 1-0 against STL)
Cincinnati Reds: 47-34 (CIN leads NLDS 2-0 against SF)
San Francisco Giants: 46-35
Oakland Athletics: 44-37
New York Yankees: 44-37 (NYY leads ALDS 1-0 against BAL)
Baltimore Orioles: 46-35
St. Louis Cardinals: 38-43
Detroit Tigers: 38-43 (DET leads ALDS 2-0 against OAK)
Teams who lost the one game play-in:
Texas Rangers: 43-38
Atlanta Braves: 46-35
Tim Brown of Yahoo! Sports followed up on Knobler’s stat:
@dknobler And both road teams won in wild-card round. That’s 2-6 for home teams. Amazing…
— Tim Brown (@TBrownYahoo) October 8, 2012
It’s difficult to say just why home teams are falling flat on their faces up to this point in the playoffs, but San Francisco has to hope this strange trend continues as they will be the road team tonight in Cincinnati. Cincinnati could sweep with a win tonight.
Here are today’s games:
NYY at BAL 8:00 PM
DET at OAK 9:00 PM
SF at CIN 5:30 PM
WSH at STL 4:30 PM
Baltimore, Oakland, Cincinnati and St. Louis will look to keep the Jerk-Stat of the day alive and well today. May the force be with them.
