00:00After a rollercoaster road trip that featured a few gut-wrenching losses, the Tigers are back at
00:05Comerica Park tonight to open a six-game homestand. There are a few reasons this team should feel
00:10genuinely excited to be home. Through 32 games, the Tigers, 16-16, look like a completely different
00:17club depending on where they play. Away from Comerica Park, Detroit is 6-14. At home, the
00:23Tigers are 10-2, and in those games they've often resembled the World Series contenders.
00:28So many expected them to be. That 10-2 mark ties their best 12-game home start to a season
00:36since they opened 12-0 at home in 1911, before this year. The last time Detroit won 10 of its
00:43first 12 home games was in 1984, which also happens to be the last time the franchise won the World
00:49Series. In a small sample, the splits are stark. At home, the Tigers are averaging 5.17 runs per game
00:56compared to 4.00 runs per game on the road. Their pitching has been better at Comerica Park as well,
01:02posting a 3.27 ERA at home and a 4.39 ERA away. But let's focus on the offense for
01:09reasons that
01:09will become clear shortly. Detroit hitters have combined for an MLB best .829 OPS at home,
01:16versus a .697 OPS on the road. That's the fourth-largest home field hitting split by Team
01:22OPS, behind the Royals, a team that just moved its fences in, the Pirates and the Orioles who adjusted
01:28the dimensions at Camden Yards last year. When it comes to hitting noticeably better in a club's
01:33own ballpark, the Tigers' four best hitters by weighted runs created plus, Kevin McGonigal,
01:40Riley Green, Kerry Carpenter, and Spencer Torkelson, all have an OPS that is at least 100 points higher at
01:47home than on the road. Greens split, with a .693 OPS on the road and a 1.139 OPS at
01:55home,
01:56ranks among the 15 largest differentials in the majors, so, yes, the Tigers are hitting worse on
02:01the road, but some of that is to be expected, since batters tend to perform a little better at home
02:07and a little worse away. Last year, for example, the league as a whole posted a .729 OPS at home
02:14compared to a .709 OPS on the road, another way to look at the Tigers' situation is through StatCast's
02:20expected stats, which zoom in on the quantity and quality of contact while stripping out elements
02:25like ballpark, defense, and luck, focusing less on the outcome of a given play. Tigers batters,
02:322026 entering play on Thursday home, .365 WOBA, .373 X WOBA Road, .310 WOBA, .340 X OBA.
02:45At Comerica Park, the Tigers' expected weighted on-base average is 8 points higher than their
02:51actual WOBA. That's essentially a wash. On the road, however, their WOBA sits 30 points lower than
02:57expected. Based on the type and frequency of contact the Tigers are making, you'd expect them
03:02to fare better. Maybe this will even out with a larger sample size, but it's worth noting that
03:06Detroit's WOBA on the road was 14 points lower than expected in 2025, the fourth-largest gap in
03:13baseball that year. This doesn't really have anything to do with where the Tigers have played
03:17on the road. Four of the six away stadiums they've visited are among the 10 friendliest ballparks for
03:23hitters. The only unfriendly park they've played in is Petco Park, and sure enough, that's the site
03:28of their only road series win this season. At home, this has at least a little bit to do with
03:32the fact
03:33that Comerica Park isn't the offensive abyss it used to be. It's not truly a hitter's paradise.
03:38If it were, the Tigers' pitching staff probably wouldn't have a 3.27 ERA there. But it's markedly
03:44better. According to StatCast's Park Factors, from 2020 to 2022, Comerica Park was the worst park for
03:51home runs and the sixth-worst hitting park among regular MLB fields. Even with a favorable batter's
03:57eye that reportedly helped hitters pick up the baseball, it was a notably tough place to hit.
04:01Prior to the 2023 season, the Tigers altered the dimensions of Comerica Park, bringing the fences
04:06in and lowering them. It certainly didn't turn the stadium into a little league field. It's still
04:11412 feet to straightaway center, but it absolutely made things better. Over the last three years,
04:17it has been the 12th-best park for home runs and the 13th-friendliest ballpark for hitters overall.
04:23Maybe the Tigers' current home-road splits don't mean much of anything, considering it's only May 1st,
04:29but it's at least a little interesting that we saw glimpses of this last year too. In 2025,
04:35the Tigers owned the fourth-largest home field hitting split by OPS, trailing only three teams
04:41with famously hitter-friendly ballparks, the Rockies, Phillies, and Dodgers. Whatever the case,
04:48this is absolutely something to keep an eye on as the Tigers look to get right on this latest
04:52homestand. Do you think these extreme splits are a sign of a real home field advantage forming at
04:57Comerica Park, or will the numbers level out as the season rolls on?
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