Terry Francona‘s staff has a 3.82 ERA at the friendly — and tight — confines of Fenway Park while sporting a 4.64 ERA on the road this season. The old ballyard is notoriously a pitcher’s nightmare, but this season, the Red Sox staff has thrived at home.
Ace Josh Beckett is 9-1 with a 3.42 ERA at home this year compared to a 21-16 career record at Fenway heading into this season.
Knuckler Tim Wakefield sports a perfect 7-0 record with a 3.65 ERA at home this season compared to just a 4-4 mark and a 4.91 ERA away from the Hub.
Brad Penny is — er, was — 5-3 at the Fens compared to a 2-3 click on the road.
Southpaw Jon Lester is the lone starter than doesn’t fit this bill. Ironically, too, because Lester entered the 2009 campaign with a 16-2 career record at the lyric little bandbox but has topped that loss total this summer alone with a 6-3 mark in front of the locals. Although he does sport more wins on the road (seven), he does own a better ERA at home — 3.07 compared to 3.47.
Oddly, this figure seems to effect the starters far more than the relievers. Jonathan Papelbon is actually better on the road than he is at home this year, sporting a 1.47 ERA in gray compared to the 2.51 ERA in white — not to mention two blown saves at Fenway this summer.
As for other bullpen patrons…
Hideki Okajima? He’s a perfect 3-0 on both the road and at home but is in the same boat as Paps as the lefty reliever has a far superior ERA as a visitor (3.03) than as a host (4.22). However, the ERA’s of both Takashi Saito (2.16/home, 2.92/road) and Daniel Bard (1.59/home 5.32/road) prove that they prefer their exit from Fenway’s right-center bullpen over that of any other entrance in the league.
