The Cubs road woes continued tonight as they lost in Houston to the Astros. The Cubs have been a drastically different team away from the Friendly Confines where they own a 19-8 record and have out scored opponents by 74 runs. After tonight’s game the Cub’s have a 9-11 record on the road including a three game sweep of the Pittsburgh Pirates in their first three road games of the year. Since that sweep the Cubs are 6-11 on the road.
For the most part the problem seems to be with the offense. The pitching numbers are slightly worse overall on the road however, they are artificially inflated by Rich Hills three bad road starts prior to being sent down. On the other hand the Cubs batters (except for Derrek Lee, Aramis Ramirez, and Geovany Soto, who are all slightly better on the road so far) are doing significantly worse on the road. The Cubs are hitting .311/.393/.501 (ave/obp/slug) at home compared to .252/.341/.378 on the road. The Cubs have been successful at home thanks to their complete lineup pounding opposing pitching staffs into submission to the tune of 6.7 runs per game; while they manage to push across 2.7 runs fewer on the road.
Unfortunately the main problems have come from some of the players who the Cubs will count on most if they hope to meet skyrocketing expectations. Fan favorite for his play at Wrigley, Kosuke Fukudome, has been an offensive liability on the road. While Kosuke puts up monster numbers at home .393/.505/.562 he is has puny numbers on the road .213/.294/.293. His road on-base percentage is 99 points lower than his home batting average. Fukudome, is not alone in his road struggles, Mark DeRosa, is hitting at least 200 points lower in each of the “slash” categories including a .402 home B.A. compared to .180 road B.A.
If the Cubs are going to end their century long championship drought Sweet Lou will have to figure out why the Cubs can’t hit outside of Chicago; or start rooting for the White Sox to make it to the World Series as well. The good news is that the Cubs left Houston tonight and are headed to Pittsburgh for a three game set with the Pirates.
Posted by Kenneth Oda 
