FanPost

NL Home/Road Splits, Facing Relievers

The problems the Brewers have had scoring runs off relief pitchers on this road trip got me to thinking. The team has scored one run in 26 2/3 relief innings on the road trip, good for a 0.34 ERA. That's a pretty ugly number, to be sure. Here are more ugly numbers: the team has hit only .146/.191/.202 in 96 PA off relievers on this trip. A silver lining, perhaps, is that they've only got a .191 BABIP in that stretch so the hits haven't really been falling in. Given the team's recent tradition of struggling on the road, I wondered how badly they hit relievers on the road all season. Before this last road trip started, the team was hitting .225/.314/.353 in 536 PA (.270 BABIP) against relief pitchers away from Miller Park. Opposing relievers had an ERA of 3.46 (RA of 4.10) against the Brewers. Combining this abysmal road trip with those numbers gives a cumulative line of .212/.296/.329 (.257 BABIP) in 632 PA. Relievers in their home park have an ERA of 2.91 and RA of 3.44 against the Crew. That means, when on the road, relief pitchers turn the Crew into Gary Bennett.

As Jeff has noted, however, the average hitter in the 2008 NL isn't very good against relievers in general. In keeping with the comparison to an ex-Brewer's career numbers, the average hitter against relievers this year is Alex Sanchez. So then, of course, I wondered how the Brewers at home and on the road stacked up against the rest of the National League. I put together two tables sorted by OPS that should help the comparisons.

First, the story of NL teams on the road.

2008 NL Teams Hitting Against Relievers on the Road (through 7/1)
Team IP R ER PA AB H 2B 3B HR BB SO HBP SH SF BA OBP SLG OPS BABIP RA ERA
STL 159.0 84 78 708 613 167 33 1 22 80 128 6 5 4 .272 .360 .437 .797 .310 4.75 4.42
PHI 140.0 90 84 647 556 151 37 5 11 72 120 8 7 4 .272 .361 .415 .776 .326 5.79 5.40
CIN 143.7 71 65 641 560 152 28 1 18 63 114 4 8 6 .271 .346 .421 .767 .309 4.45 4.07
FLA 134.0 66 61 584 517 127 20 2 21 55 136 3 5 4 .246 .320 .414 .733 .291 4.43 4.10
PIT 149.7 80 72 654 583 144 28 2 21 55 125 6 6 4 .247 .316 .410 .726 .279 4.81 4.33
SDP 113.0 49 48 470 418 103 19 3 12 42 100 4 1 5 .246 .318 .392 .710 .293 3.90 3.82
SFG 149.3 65 62 631 556 138 28 3 13 60 115 7 2 6 .248 .326 .379 .705 .288 3.92 3.74
LAD 119.7 62 56 518 449 117 22 3 4 61 82 3 2 3 .261 .351 .350 .700 .309 4.66 4.21
CHC 142.3 55 52 616 529 129 28 1 11 69 126 8 5 5 .244 .337 .363 .700 .297 3.48 3.29
WSN 123.0 62 54 538 468 111 24 0 9 58 107 7 3 2 .237 .329 .346 .675 .288 4.54 3.95
ATL 126.0 46 42 532 473 112 27 2 7 55 101 1 1 2 .237 .316 .347 .663 .286 3.29 3.00
NYM 139.0 63 58 580 521 123 26 2 13 43 98 2 6 8 .236 .293 .369 .661 .263 4.08 3.76
COL 148.3 58 52 625 561 137 30 1 9 50 134 5 8 1 .244 .311 .349 .661 .305 3.52 3.16
ARI 137.0 47 43 572 486 98 17 3 14 66 128 6 8 6 .202 .301 .335 .637 .240 3.09 2.82
MIL 151.7 58 49 632 556 118 28 2 11 55 132 12 6 3 .212 .296 .329 .625 .257 3.44 2.91
HOU 120.0 42 33 487 438 97 13 3 9 37 87 2 3 7 .221 .281 .326 .607 .252 3.15 2.48
NL 2195.7 998 909 9435 8284 2024 408 34 205 921 1833 84 76 70 .244 .324 .376 .700 .288 4.09 3.73

Yuck. That's not fun to look at. Hopefully more hits fall in soon and that BABIP gets closer to the league average. On the brighter side, the Brewers are doing better at home.

2008 NL Teams Hitting Against Relievers at Home (through 7/1)
Team IP R ER BF AB H 2B 3B HR BB SO HBP SH SF BA OBP SLG OPS BABIP RA ERA
CHC 138.3 107 95 665 565 172 31 0 24 80 131 8 6 6 .304 .395 .487 .881 .356 6.96 6.18
ATL 132.0 84 80 613 517 139 26 5 16 73 113 8 9 6 .269 .364 .431 .796 .312 5.73 5.45
MIL 113.7 50 48 491 430 107 15 8 20 49 79 3 6 3 .249 .328 .460 .788 .260 3.96 3.80
CIN 120.0 63 58 525 456 112 19 2 21 58 107 3 8 0 .246 .335 .434 .769 .277 4.73 4.35
PHI 126.0 67 65 552 484 118 26 3 20 54 107 8 4 2 .244 .328 .434 .762 .273 4.79 4.64
COL 125.7 63 56 543 473 117 26 7 12 54 104 5 10 1 .247 .330 .408 .738 .293 4.51 4.01
SFG 112.7 46 42 480 422 110 21 6 6 45 82 4 3 6 .261 .333 .382 .715 .306 3.67 3.36
HOU 129.0 53 46 549 487 121 30 3 11 49 92 4 6 3 .248 .320 .390 .711 .284 3.70 3.21
ARI 120.3 52 41 501 443 104 26 4 12 42 113 8 3 5 .235 .309 .393 .702 .285 3.89 3.07
FLA 123.0 54 52 523 452 103 19 2 16 54 138 6 6 5 .228 .315 .385 .700 .287 3.95 3.80
LAD 124.0 44 37 525 466 117 26 1 7 44 99 5 8 2 .251 .321 .356 .677 .304 3.19 2.69
STL 128.3 38 34 543 480 112 24 2 8 50 85 4 8 1 .233 .310 .342 .652 .268 2.66 2.38
PIT 139.0 54 50 586 516 122 27 1 8 50 99 6 8 6 .236 .308 .339 .647 .275 3.50 3.24
NYM 151.0 47 43 636 543 120 22 2 6 77 113 3 11 2 .221 .320 .302 .622 .268 2.80 2.56
SDP 161.7 51 47 657 584 121 14 2 14 58 150 8 4 3 .207 .286 .310 .596 .253 2.84 2.62
WSN 129.3 40 38 528 457 93 17 1 6 60 106 6 3 2 .204 .303 .284 .587 .251 2.78 2.64
NL 2074.0 913 832 8917 7775 1888 369 49 207 897 1718 89 103 53 .243 .326 .383 .709 .285 3.96 3.61

It sucks that the team hasn't been able to plate more runs against relievers at home with their good hitting. It's a testament to their winning ways in Miller Park that they've had the second-fewest relief innings pitched against them there (fewer ninth innings). Once again, hopefully that BABIP gets up to league average levels.

Of course, now that tonight's game has seen relievers and Rickie Weeks has given the Crew the lead all of this is out of date anyway. :)