Sports Talk: No Place Like Home — Thankfully

WHETHER IT'S BECAUSE of the home crowd, the opportunity for players to sleep in their own beds instead of hotels or favorable calls from umpires, teams are generally better at home. That's why they call it home-field advantage.

But for nine professional ballclubs including the Washington Nationals, that rule of thumb does not apply.

Despite the fact that they were 21-16 since May 11, Washington's 14-21 home record was the third worst in baseball behind the Rangers and the Reds heading into Wednesday's series finale against the Detroit Tigers.

The Nationals are batting .244 at home compared to .249 on the road. Opponents, on the other hand, are batting .267 at RFK and just .263 when playing the Nats at their home stadium.

"Our guys have to concentrate and do things right and forget about the ballpark and all that kind of stuff," manager Manny Acta said heading into the Tigers' series. "Because it's equal for both teams."

But opposing teams aren't just winning more games at RFK, they're also doing it more convincingly. At RFK, teams have outscored the Nationals 181-127. In comparison, Washington has been outscored just 178-150 on the road. The last home series the team won was more than a month ago against Atlanta, but it won six of nine on it's most recent road trip and five of seven on the one before that.

And it's not going to get much easier. After an off-day on Thursday, Washington welcomes the AL Central-leading Cleveland Indians — who are second only to Detroit in runs scored this season — to town for a three-game set.

"It's important for us because we want to play better at home regardless of who's in town," Acta said. "These are two good clubs, and the stats show it. But we just have to take care of our own things and play better at home because we have played well on the road the last month or so."

Photo by Jonathan Newton / The Washington Post