Houston Astros Right-hander Lance McCullers Jr. suffered humiliation as part of his start in Game Three of the World Series on Tuesday night, Became the first bowler to give up five home games in a World Championship competition. McCullers left during the fifth inning, after allowing seven runs on six strokes in 4 1/3 innings.
McCuller’s problems started out of the gate. Bryce Harper (two-stage shot), Alec Bohm and Brandon Marsh fired home runs in the first two innings to give Philadelphia a 4-0 advantage and in the process made Phyllis The first team to hit three home runs in the first two frames of a World Championship game.
McCullers settled for some time after the second half. He retired eight straight hits, taking him to fifth. That’s when he ran into more problems. McCullers, who, for whatever reason, was allowed to face the line-up for a third time, succumbed to Marsh, then ran back-to-back home runs to Kyle Schwarber and Rhys Hoskins, putting the Phillies 7-0 ahead.
Notably, Harper raised eyebrows after running home in the first half when he appeared on Fox’s broadcast first calling and then delivering a message to Boom, then waiting for his turn on the board in the circuit on the deck. It’s not clear what exactly it is, or whether it’s even about McCullers — let alone whether he flips his tunes or uses a predictable tone pattern, Harper told Boom.
However, Bohm played timidly when asked by Ken Rosenthal about Harper’s comments to him later in the game. He said frankly that that conversation would remain between them.
After the match, both McCullers and manager Dusty Baker dismissed the idea that the novice was tempted to pitch in.
“This has nothing to do with the changes,” McCullers told reporters. Including Brian McTaggart of MLB.com. “Obviously they had a good game plan against me and executed better than me.”
“I was shocked,” he added.
Meanwhile, Baker said the team saw no reason to believe McCullers was leaning. “Sometimes, they would just hit you,” he said, According to USA Today’s Gaby Lacks,.
Whatever Harper said or didn’t say, and whatever the Phillies did or didn’t notice about McCullers’ delivery, they fired more rounds against him on Tuesday than the four allowed in 47 2/3 of their regular season innings.
