SAN FRANCISCO — During their final media availability of the season, Brian Sabean and Bruce Bochy were asked to explain the lineup’s bizarre home-road splits. The Giants scored 321 runs at AT&T Park, a ballpark that suppresses power and offense. But they managed just 282 on the road, where their numbers are supposed to get healthy.
“Just as weird is why are we so fallible at night, even worse on the road at night. Why? I don’t know,” Sabean said.
“You can’t explain that,” Bochy added.
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The first step towards fixing the offense will be finding an explanation. The Giants went 42-39 at home, which won’t get you into the postseason, but at least is a respectable form of baseball. On the road, they won just 31 of 50 games, averaging a league-worst 3.48 runs per game despite making three visits a year to Coors Field and Chase Field.
A year ago, the 98-loss Giants went 26-55 on the road.
Sabean made note of the injuries, pointing out that the projected lineup was together just four times. The Giants had five different lineups take the field four times, but never put the same group out there a fifth time.
“The health, meaning who is in the lineup or who is not in the lineup, does roll into people’s individual performances,” he said. “We’ve been one of those lineups that needed all hands on deck. When we’re missing pieces, because we don’t knock the fence down and we rely on timely hitting, it affects us more than most.”
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There is also simply a talent issue, though. Sure, lineup protection might come into play at times, but the lack of a healthy group doesn’t explain the road failures. The Giants rarely had a healthy nine, but more often than not until the final month, they sent the majority of their regulars out there together, and they still struggled. The lineup did not have a single hitter finish with a road OPS higher than .800, and Andrew McCutchen (.767) and Evan Longoria (.757) were the only projected starters to crack .700.
Brandon Belt slugged .365 away from home with just six homers. Brandon Crawford had seven, but slugged just .374 away from AT&T Park. Buster Posey had a .609 OPS on the road. Joe Panik had a .593 OPS and homered just once on the road following his two-homer series in Los Angeles on opening weekend. Alen Hanson, Hunter Pence, Gorkys Hernandez, Nick Hundley — find a Giant who got a lot of at-bats and you’ll find a Giant who, for whatever reason, struggled to hit after walking up from the visiting dugout. That’s no way to keep the line moving.
“You’d think, if you have somebody in a major league uniform, they’d find a way. If not just with a mental approach, more of a plan in the batter’s box when we have runners in scoring position,” Sabean said. “We’ve seen the numbers. It’s even more astounding. We’re, what, 52-20 or something ridiculous (when we score four runs)?”
The Giants were, in fact, 52-20 when scoring four or more. It shouldn’t be too difficult a benchmark to hit, but when you look back at last season’s offensive numbers, the journey to four runs per game looks like a long one.