There’s no place like away

Earlier this season, we told you about Ervin Santana and his preference for pitching at home.

Now, via the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, we bring you Ryan Howard and his amazing traveling RBI show.

Howard is third in the majors in runs batted in with 93, trailing only A-Rod (109) and Magglio Ordonez (94). But get this — 65 of Howard’s RBI’s have been hit on the road.That’s a lot of road RBI. Compare that to A-Rod, who has 16 more RBI than Howard, but has only 35 RBI on the road. Ordonez, meanwhile, has 57 RBI while hitting away from home, which is also a lot, but still not as much as Howard.

And what’s really surprising is that Howard plays his home games in Citizen Bank Park, which is popularly described as a “band box”, whatever that is. The point is, it’s small. And it’s easy to hit homers at the Shitizen. And doubles. And therefore, it seems logical to think that Howard would have more RBI at home than on the road.

And yet he doesn’t. Quite the opposite. But why? Does he perform better away from the hometown boobirds? Or maybe his teammates just do a better job of getting on base in front of him while the team is on the road, which is possible, but not likely.

Whatever the reason, one thing’s for sure: Ryan Howard is at home on the road.