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The best and worst road teams in San Francisco Giants history

Did you realize the Giants have been awful on the road this year? Well, surprise! They a ... oh, you did notice.

Ezra Shaw

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.

*Asterisks indicate championship teams