As the Cape League playoffs approach and teams jockey for home-field advantage in the final days of the regular season, an unusual trend where teams have actually had more success on the road this summer comes to the forefront.
With just two days left in the regular season, Cape League teams have combined for 91 wins on the road this season compared to 88 losses. The four teams that will represent the East Division in the postseason are currently sitting above .500 on the road this season, while just two of them are above .500 at home.
This trend is particularly apparent when it comes to the league-leading Orleans Firebirds, who have been considerably better away from home during the regular season. Orleans improved its road record to 12-5-2 with a nail-biting 2-1 victory over Chatham on Friday to keep its spot atop the East Division standings. Meanwhile, the Firebirds are just 9-10 playing in front of their home crowd this season, although they have secured three consecutive home victories as part of their six-game winning streak.
One of the leaders of the West Division, Wareham, also has a notably better record on the road than in front of its home crowd so far this season. As visitors, the Gatemen are 11-8, while they are just 8-11 at home.
Throughout the first half of the summer, Y-D was one of the few teams in the league that displayed a dangerous home-field advantage when it went undefeated during its first nine home games of the season. However, the home woes struck Y-D after this torrid start at Red Wilson Field, as the team went winless in its next eight home contests.
Over the past week, Y-D has seemed to recapture some of the home magic from early in the year with a pair of wins over Falmouth on Tuesday and Harwich on Thursday. After all the peaks and valleys, Y-D currently sits 9-7-3 at Red Wilson Field with one home game to go in the regular season against Chatham on Saturday.
Despite some of the home struggles that Y-D has had, the team does still have a slightly better record at home than on the road, as it is 10-9 in road games following the 9-2 loss to Brewster on Friday. Y-D, Brewster and Harwich are currently the only three teams in the league to have records above .500 both at home and on the road.
When you take a look at the league as a whole, six of the 10 teams are .500 or better on the road compared to five being .500 or better at home. Although the differences are miniscule, the one thing that’s certain is that there has been no clear home-field advantage around the league this season.
With the playoffs looming next week, this kind of success on the road could bring memories of the 2019 World Series between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros. During that series, the home team didn’t win a single game, leading to the Nationals taking home the title on the road in Game 7 at Minute Maid Park.
It remains to be seen what’s in store for the postseason, but one main takeaway from all of this information is that no matter how the seeding shakes out over the next two days, it’s still anyone’s ballgame when the playoffs roll around.
