Athletics, Rays have struggled in minor league ballparks serving as temporary homes

The Athletics — formerly of Oakland but not yet of Las Vegas — have one of the worst home records in baseball.

Maybe it figures.

The A's are one of two big league teams playing in minor league ballparks this season, along with the Tampa Bay Rays. Tampa Bay was forced out of Tropicana Field after damage caused by Hurricane Milton, so the Rays are playing home games at the Yankees’ spring training base in Tampa. The A's left Oakland and are spending at least three seasons at Sutter Health Park in West Sacramento before moving to a planned ballpark in Las Vegas.

So far, these temporary venues don't seem to be helping in the win column. Tampa Bay has played far more games at home than on the road, but the Rays are 16-18 at home and 10-8 away. For the A's, the difference is even more jarring. They are 14-12 on the road but just 9-19 at home.

These are the only two teams in the major leagues that have a winning record on the road and a losing record at home.

After improving from 50-112 in 2023 to 69-93 last year, the A's were actually above .500 less than two weeks ago. Then they dropped 11 in a row, the last six of which were at home, before finally beating Philadelphia 5-4 on Sunday.

The Athletics have a winning percentage of .538 on the road and .321 at home. That difference of .217 is on pace to set a modern record. The previous mark was “achieved” in the strike-shortened season of 1994 by the Chicago Cubs, who were 29-25 (.537) on the road and just 20-39 (.339) at home.

The record for a full season was set back in 1908, when Pittsburgh was 56-21 (.727) on the road and 42-35 (.545) at home.

Ironically, if you take out the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, the Athletics already hold the modern record for the biggest home-road winning percentage difference in the other direction. In 1945, the Philadelphia A's went 39-35 (.527) at home but just 13-63 (.171) on the road for a split of .356.

Trivia time

Although the A's have only nine home wins this season, three of them have come in walk-off fashion. Name the three teams that have yet to produce a walk-off victory in 2025.

Line of the week

Reigning American League Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal struck out 13 in a two-hit shutout on Sunday, lifting Detroit to a 5-0 win over Cleveland. It was his first complete game as a pro, and he threw just 94 pitches — the last of which was a 102.6 mph fastball to strike out Gabriel Arias.

Skubal became the first player in franchise history to pitch a complete game with no walks, two or fewer hits and 13 strikeouts.

Comeback of the week

The Cubs began the week by losing 8-7 in walk-off fashion to Miami on Monday night — they had been up by one with two outs in the bottom of the ninth and nobody on. But later in the week, Chicago was on the winning end of two remarkable rallies against Cincinnati.

On Friday night, the Cubs were down 6-2 in the seventh before scoring the game's final 11 runs in a 13-6 win. Then two days later, the Reds led 8-3 in the sixth before Chicago came back to win 11-8. Cincinnati's peak win probability was 96.1% on Friday and 97% on Sunday, according to Baseball Savant.

Trivia answer

Colorado, Baltimore and Cincinnati have not had a walk-off victory. The Rockies have the worst home record in the game at 6-22. Baltimore isn't much better than the Rockies and A's at 8-15. The Reds are 14-14 at home.

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