KC Royals: The Value Of Home Field Advantage

The Kansas City Royals have just 13 games remaining and home-field advantage throughout is in the team’s sights.

Would you believe it?

The KC Royals begin its final regular-season home stand of the season tonight against the Seattle Mariners.

Three against Seattle, then a three-game set this weekend against the Cleveland Indians.

The Royals didn’t lose a home series until June 4, a full two months into the season. The Royals are 17-5-2 in home series this season.

If someone had told you on Opening Day that the Royals would begin its last home stand with 87 wins and an 11-game stranglehold on the American League Central, would you believe it?

Would you believe that on September 22 the boys in blue would control its own destiny – to the A.L. Central crown, to home-field advantage throughout and to potentially the friendliest possible road back to a second-straight World Series?

It’s been that type of year for the 2015 Kansas City Royals. And it’s been that type of home-field advantage.

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They’re 48-27 at Kauffman Stadium. They’re 38-29 against the division overall. They’re 22-16 in one-run games. (The storming Toronto Blue Jays are 13-27 in one-run games, oddly enough).

The Royals didn’t lose a home series until June 4, a full two months into the season. The Royals are 17-5-2 in home series this season.

That’s a prizefighter, y’all. One does not simply win a series in Kauffman Stadium. It’s become one of the toughest home fields in baseball.

When it comes to the bigger picture, like repeating as American League Champions, that home-field advantage might prove be a critical difference.

Kauffman Stadium is the friendliest park to pitchers in the A.L. in terms of home runs allowed, according to ESPN’s Park Factors. When the air is cooler (and denser) this fall, the Jays and the Yankees and the Astros and the rest of the teams that rely on the long ball might run into some problems if the Royals can hold on and own home-field advantage.

Only two A.L. teams have hit fewer home runs than the Royals this season, yet the Royals are third in all of baseball in doubles.

It’s the confines of Kauffman Stadium. The Royals are a different team at home. They’re a better team there.

The team is built to win at home.

The crowd, the atmosphere and the energy make a difference too, and the guys on the field clearly play at a different level when they’re at home.

They expect to win. They defend their home, and any team that walks out with a victory seems to feel pretty fortunate.

It’s not the be-all end-all, but home-field advantage for the KC Royals might just mean the difference between a second-straight World Series appearance, and tough game six or game seven up in the Rogers Centre in Toronto.

Next: KC Royals: What A Difference A Year Makes

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