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The Cardinals. Jose Oquendo? Candy Maldonado! Tommy Herr's face. David Bell sliding across the plate. Matt Morris sleeper cell. Matt Holliday is an ape man. All is lost. Barry Zito! Marco Scutaro dufresning in the rain.
There. Now with the Cardinals series preview out of the way, we can focus on what's really important, which is what's going on during the Giants' flights. Hunter Pence keeps climbing on the wing, all of the players are having nightmares at 20,000 feet, and one can get a wink of sleep. Or something. You tell me. My theory is as good as any.
That is, the Giants are having an awful time on the road this year. They're 20-10 at home so far, and 9-15 on the road. At one point, the Giants were 6-2 on the road, which means since then they've … carry the four … been really, really bad. Just dreadful, especially lately. And now the Giants are going on the road against one of the best teams in baseball, but that's okay because I have stuff to do this weekend. Pre-writing the post-game threads is going to make things a lot easier.
This is the kind of thing that makes me get my destitute-man's Jayson Stark on and look for the worst road performances in Giants history. An unnecessarily long table:
Year | Road wins | Road losses | Road win % | Home win % | Difference between home/road | Finish |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1958 | 36 | 41 | .468 | .571 | .103 | 80-74, 3rd place |
1959 | 42 | 35 | .532 | .545 | .013 | 83-71, 3rd place |
1960 | 34 | 43 | .442 | .584 | .142 | 79-75, 5th place |
1961 | 40 | 37 | .519 | .584 | .065 | 85-69, 3rd place |
1962 | 42 | 41 | .506 | .744 | .238 | 103-62, 1st place |
1963 | 38 | 43 | .469 | .617 | .148 | 88-74, 3rd place |
1964 | 46 | 35 | .568 | .543 | -.025 | 90-72, 4th place |
1965 | 44 | 37 | .543 | .630 | .087 | 95-67, 2nd place |
1966 | 46 | 34 | .575 | .580 | .005 | 93-68, 2nd place |
1967 | 40 | 40 | .500 | .622 | .122 | 91-71, 2nd place |
1968 | 46 | 35 | .568 | .519 | -.049 | 88-74, 2nd place |
1969 | 38 | 43 | .469 | .642 | .173 | 90-72, 2nd place |
1970 | 38 | 43 | .469 | .593 | .124 | 86-76, 3rd place |
1971 | 39 | 42 | .481 | .630 | .149 | 90-72, 1st place |
1972 | 35 | 43 | .449 | .442 | -.007 | 69-86, 5th place |
1973 | 41 | 40 | .506 | .580 | .074 | 88-74, 3rd place |
1974 | 35 | 46 | .432 | .457 | .025 | 72-90, 5th place |
1975 | 34 | 46 | .425 | .568 | .143 | 80-81, 3rd place |
1976 | 34 | 47 | .420 | .494 | .074 | 74-88, 4th place |
1977 | 37 | 44 | .457 | .469 | .012 | 75-87, 4th place |
1978 | 39 | 42 | .481 | .617 | .136 | 89-73, 3rd place |
1979 | 33 | 48 | .407 | .469 | .062 | 71-91, 4th place |
1980 | 31 | 49 | .388 | .543 | .155 | 75-86, 5th place |
1981 | 27 | 31 | .466 | .547 | .081 | 56-55, 4th place |
1982 | 42 | 39 | .519 | .560 | .041 | 87-75, 3rd place |
1983 | 36 | 45 | .444 | .531 | .087 | 79-83, 5th place |
1984 | 31 | 50 | .383 | .432 | .049 | 66-96, 6th place |
1985 | 24 | 57 | .296 | .469 | .173 | 62-100, 6th place |
1986 | 37 | 44 | .457 | .568 | .111 | 83-79, 3rd place |
1987 | 44 | 37 | .543 | .568 | .025 | 90-72, 1st place |
1988 | 38 | 43 | .469 | .556 | .087 | 83-79, 4th place |
1989 | 39 | 42 | .481 | .654 | .173 | 92-70, 1st place |
1990 | 36 | 45 | .444 | .605 | .161 | 85-77, 3rd place |
1991 | 32 | 49 | .395 | .531 | .136 | 75-87, 4th place |
1992 | 30 | 51 | .370 | .519 | .149 | 72-90, 5th place |
1993 | 53 | 28 | .654 | .617 | -.037 | 103-59, 2nd place |
1994 | 26 | 29 | .473 | .483 | .010 | 55-60, 2nd place |
1995 | 30 | 42 | .417 | .514 | .097 | 67-77, 4th place |
1996 | 30 | 50 | .375 | .463 | .088 | 68-94, 4th place |
1997 | 42 | 39 | .519 | .593 | .074 | 90-72, 1st place |
1998 | 40 | 42 | .488 | .605 | .117 | 89-74, 2nd place |
1999 | 37 | 44 | .457 | .605 | .148 | 86-76, 2nd place |
2000 | 42 | 39 | .519 | .679 | .160 | 97-65, 1st place |
2001 | 41 | 40 | .506 | .605 | .099 | 90-72, 2nd place |
2002 | 45 | 35 | .563 | .617 | .054 | 95-66, 2nd place |
2003 | 43 | 37 | .538 | .704 | .166 | 100-61, 1st place |
2004 | 44 | 36 | .550 | .573 | .023 | 91-71, 2ndplace |
2005 | 38 | 43 | .469 | .457 | -.012 | 75-87, 3rd place |
2006 | 33 | 47 | .413 | .531 | .118 | 76-85, 3rd place |
2007 | 32 | 49 | .395 | .481 | .086 | 71-91, 5th place |
2008 | 35 | 46 | .432 | .457 | .025 | 72-90, 4th place |
2009 | 36 | 45 | .444 | .642 | .198 | 88-74, 3rd place |
2010* | 43 | 38 | .531 | .605 | .074 | 92-70, 1st place |
2011 | 40 | 41 | .494 | .568 | .074 | 86-76, 2nd place |
2012* | 46 | 35 | .568 | .593 | .025 | 94-68, 1st place |
And now for some categories:
Worst road teams
1. 1985, .296
2. 1992, .370
3. 1996, .375
4. 1984, .383
5. 1980, .383
Best road teams
1. 1993, .654
2. 1966, .575
3. 2012, .568
4. 1964, .568
5. 1968, .568
Worst road teams (2nd place or better)
1. 1999, .457
2. 1969, .469
3. 1971, .481
4. 1989, .481
5. 1998, .488
Say, that's not encouraging. None of the awful road teams won their division. Probably because they were awful on the road. The '71 and '89 Giants won their divisions, but a .481 winning percentage is hardly awful.
Biggest discrepancy between home/road %
1. 1962, .238
2. 2009, .198
3. 1989, .173
4. 1985, .173
5. 1969, .173
We've already talked about how weird the '85 Giants were because they were the master of the walk-off win, which isn't something you'd expect from a 100-loss team.
Lowest road win % by a 90-win team
1. 1969, .469
2. 1989, .481
3. 1971, .481
4. 1967, .500
5. 1962, .506
Just a guess that the Giants will need 90 wins to make the playoffs. Maybe more, and probably not fewer. That means unless they want to be a historic anomaly, they should start winning on the road if they want to make the playoffs.
#analysis
No, but seriously, start winning on the road, Giants. This is annoying.
Really, though, I just felt like making a table.