First Data Field in Port St. Lucie is no big-league ballpark.
But it is a road ballpark in spring training for the Marlins — home of the Mets — and will serve as an early test to see if pitcher Wei-Yin Chen has exorcised the demons that haunted him all last season.
Chen was awful on the road, going 1-9 with a 9.27 ERA — the highest in the majors. But he was sensational at Marlins Park, where his 1.62 ERA ranked second only to National League Cy Young Award winner Jacob deGrom’s 1.54 home ERA.
The home/road disparity, the widest ever by a big-league pitcher with as many starts as Chen’s last season, was a constant source of frustration last season for Chen and the Marlins.