After David Wright struck out four times on Wednesday night and earned the first Golden Sombrero of his career, I couldn’t help but notice how different he looked from the Wright we saw on the recent West Coast swing.
I decided to check out Baseball Reference and take a look at his home and road splits. The results were somewhat dramatic in several areas.
The comparison gets off to a good start because the sample size in terms of games played and at-bats are virtually the same. However the similarities quickly stop there.
The first thing that stands out to me is his batting average and on-base percentage. Wright performs remarkably better on the road with a whopping 120 point difference. It’s incredible that he is still maintaining over a .400 batting average with over 25% of the season already in the books. And even though he is batting 118 points less at home, a .287 batting average isn’t all that bad.
His strikeout rate is absolutely hideous at home – striking out once every 2.8 at-bats. It could explain why his RBI numbers are half of what he has on the road. On the road, Wright’s strikeout rate is a much improved 4.42.
The difference in his OPS is the most dramatic of all. Wright is over 200 points better on the road, .840 versus 1.057.
David Wright is definitely a road warrior this season.
