Playing at home is always thought of as an advantage. But for many Milwaukee Brewers this season, they've actually flourished more on the road.
Look no further than Friday's starter in Arizona, Zach Davies. He has the fourth-largest differential between road and home ERA in the National League.
Davies owns a 3.71 ERA away from home entering Friday's game and a 5.40 ERA at Miller Park, a +1.69 difference. Only Atlanta's Julio Tehran (+5.45), Arizona's Robbie Ray (+5.03) and Colorado's Tyler Chatwood (+4.50) have larger differentials in the NL.
Davies is hardly the exception on the Brewers. The pitching staff as a whole has put up much better numbers outside of Milwaukee. On the road, the Brewers have a 3.48 ERA, 1.273 WHIP and strike out 8.3 batters per nine innings. Compare that to their home numbers: 4.43 ERA, 1.468 WHIP and 7.6 K/9.
Here are some other Brewers who have fared better (or better in some categories) on the road compared to home:
Jesus Aguilar: Away: .289/.347/.644. Home: .280/.341/.453.
Jacob Barnes: Away: 1.88 ERA, 0.907 WHIP. Home: 5.63 ERA, 1.500 WHIP.
Oliver Drake: Away: 4.26 ERA, 1.421 WHIP, 11.4 K/9. Home: 5.54 ERA, 1.846 WHIP, 8.3 K. (Includes 3 games with the Orioles in which he tossed two scoreless innings at home and have up three runs on five hits in one inning on the road.)
Neftail Feliz: Away 3.75 ERA 1.167 WHIP. Home: 6.43 ERA, 1.357 WHIP.
Corey Knebel: Away: 0.64 ERA, 1.000 WHIP, 18.6 K/9. Home: 1.69 ERA, 1.063 WHIP, 14.1 K/9.
Hernan Perez: Away: .295/.313/.436. Home: .252/.292/.505.
Manny Pina: Away: .300/.340/.420. Home: .281/.329/.438.
Domingo Santana: Away: .312/.393/.468; Home: .265/.358/.521.
Eric Sogard: Away: .464/.605/.679. Home: .367/.472/.667.
Eric Thames: Away: .325/.441/.753. Home: .226/.388/.481.
Looking at the above numbers we can get a decent idea of why Milwaukee has a .600 road winning percentage (15-10) and the second-biggest differential between road and home winning percentages in the majors (.128).
Other notes:
-- While the Brewers are good at winning on the road, Arizona is 24-8 (.750) at home. The Diamondbacks have a .317 difference in winning percentage between home and road, the largest such differential in the majors.
-- Milwaukee now has a +40 run differential in the first inning, easily the best in MLB (Texas is next at +14). Arizona is third at +12.
Statistics courtesy STATS and baseball-reference.com.
