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The Indians have been much better on the road than at home this season

Looking at the splits indicates that it's not the hitting -- it's the pitching and the fielding.

By woodsmeister
Jason Miller/Getty Images

Why are the Indians losing at home? A look at the home and away splits indicates that it's the pitching and the fielding, but it's not the hitting.

The Indians are hitting better at home than on the road, but pitching worse. The eyes and xFIP say they are fielding worse at home but I could find no advanced fielding splits to prove this.

First, the hitting:

Indians PA BB% K% BB/K AVG OBP SLG OPS ISO Spd BABIP UBR wGDP wSB wRC
HOME 968 11.3 17.3 0.65 12 0.346 0.412 0.759 0.151 4.1 0.301 124 17.4 0.333 120
AWAY 1122 8.6 16.6 0.52 19 0.314 0.392 0.706 0.145 4.4 0.272 122 -1.9 0.308 97

At home the Indians are walking more, getting on base more, doing better with BABIP, displaying more power, and generally staying out of double plays. RISP home and away splits were not available.

Now, the pitching:

All Pitchers IP ERA K/9 BB/9 K/BB K% GB/FB HR/FB BABIP LOB% ERA FIP xFIP
HOME 225 4.72 8.96 2.76 3.25 23.1 1.42 13.3 % 0.337 65.7 4.72 3.76 3.45
AWAY 253.1 3.38 10.44 3.13 3.34 27.9 1.24 11.0 % 0.298 77.7 3.38 3.24 3.21

On the road, the Indians are just flat out pitching better, with more strikeouts, an average BABIP and more men stranded on base.

The caveat here is the substantial difference here in home and away ERA and xFIP. The higher BABIP may be a function of poor fielding. Our eyes tell us that the Indians are getting BABIP'ed at home and kicking it around the ballpark. This numbers back that up.

Bottom line - the Indians are pitching and fielding better on the road and hitting better at home. Granted, these are relatively small sample size numbers, but they are large enough to indicate some trends. The Indians have to pitch and/or field better at home to turn things around.

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