I broke down their home/road differences by offense, pitching and fielding using split stats from ESPN.COM. The offensive comparison is shown in Table 1 below. You can see that the Tigers have scored 5.6 runs per game at home versus 4.1 on the road and that they are doing better at home by every important offensive statistic.
Table 1: Tigers Offense - Home and Away
| Stat | Home | Away |
| Runs Per Game | 5.6 | 4.1 |
| Batting Average | .276 | .245 |
| OBP | .353 | .307 |
| Slugging | .456 | .395 |
| OPS | .809 | .701 |
Run prevention at home and away is shown in Table 2. Their pitching differential at home (3.9) versus on the road (4.9) is not as wide as the offensive split but one run per game is a lot. Their superior pitching at home is seen in their strikeouts (7.5 per nine innings at home versus 6.8 on the road) and home runs (0.9 versus 1.2).
There is no easy way to look at their home/away fielding split directly but the last row of Table 2 gives us a clue. DIPS% is the ratio between the predicted ERA based on walks, strikeouts and home runs and their actual ERA. Their 120 ratio at home indicates their predicted ERA is 20% higher than their actual ERA. This suggests that their fielding at home has been very strong and has helped their ERA substantially. Conversely, the 97 ratio on the road says that their predicted ERA is 3% less than their actual ERA. Thus, it does not appear that their ERA has been influenced unduely by fielding on the road as it has been at Comerica.
Table 2: Tigers Run Prevention - Home and Away
| Stat | Home | Away |
| Runs Per Game | 3.9 | 4.9 |
| BB/ 9 IP | 3.9 | 3.8 |
| K/ 9 IP | 7.5 | 6.8 |
| HR/ 9 IP | 0.9 | 1.2 |
| OPS | .706 | .785 |
| DIPS% | 120 | 97 |
In conclusion, the Tigers are doing much better at home in all phases of the game - hitting, pitching and fielding. I don't know that their team is necesarily constructed for Comerica Park. It may be that they feel more confident at Comerica or they might just be catching teams at the right time at home. If it's not just a fluke and they continue their home dominance, then that is good news because they have more home games (41) than road games the rest of the way (34).
In an unrelated note, J. Ellet Lambie has a good article on the history of Tigers in the home run derby up at Eye of the Tigers.
Also, just up now is Billfer's article on his day behind the scenes at Fox Sports. It was a great experience for him and a must read article for all Tigers television viewers.
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