Home Sweet Road

While most teams would amp up at the idea of playing in your own backyard, sleeping in your own bed, and having the greatest baseball fans in the world backing you up, the 2009 Chicago White Sox seem disinterested when they arrive at U.S. Cellular field.  Most teams look forward to the notion of returning home after a nine game road trip, but to any sox fan whose been paying attention, our players seem to dread it.  What is the problem?  What is the answer?  It always seems to come back to not being able to figure out what the problem is exactly with absolutely no solutions in sight.  Whether it is the White Sox not being able to hit a pitcher they have never seen before, or subconsciously all the players believe a few home runs will loosen everything  up at the cell considering our home ballpark is usually a launching pad, these guys look like their sleepwalking when they play at home.  

        With 1/3 of the 2009 campaign behind us, the White Sox are posting a better record on the road.  I don't know if there is any rational way to explain it, but everyone on the team looks hungry, takes quality at-bats, and hits the ball.  The team batting average is around .275-.280 on the road while the sox are struggling to hover around .200 at home.  Many people would argue that Sox record on the road is only .500 and that an 18-18 record is still not evidence enough to say the Sox play better on the road than at home.  Regardless of what the statistics say, if you are playing .500 ball on the road you are getting the job done.  The only reason the sox do not have a winning record on the road is because their pitching staff suffers in other teams' parks.  This brings me to my point of why the sox are struggling so much this season, there is no consistency.  On the road, the Sox are able to hit but have trouble pitching at times.  When the Sox are at home, they are able to pitch but cannot figure out how to hit.  A 4.5 ERA on the road with a .280 team BA will keep you in games, while a 3.6 ERA at home with a .210 team BA will also keep you in games.  The problem is that with those numbers you are going to lose just as much as you win and it explains why the Sox have been sinking or treading the .500 mark all season.  The scary thing about the whole situation is that the AL central is so bad this year that if the sox happened to get hot they would be right back in the race.  Hopefully Kenny doesn't decide to have a fire sale just yet because in this division I don't know if anybody will be out of it until the end of September.  Maybe the White Sox should try wearing their away jerseys at home or encourage the fans to wear the opposing team’s gear at home games, whatever the change is it needs to happen fast.  The AL central could be an enjoyable race this summer if only the White Sox could get their edge back at home.