PHILADELPHIA — By the time Lance McCullers Jr. walked off the mound with one out in the fifth inning Tuesday night, the Astros right-hander had allowed five — count ’em, five — home runs to the Phillies.
“It was kind of mind-boggling,’’ Houston manager Dusty Baker said after his team lost Game 3 of the World Series, 7-0. “Because he doesn’t give up homers.”
But on this night, McCullers did, and the Astros fell behind two games to one in the series.
There was much speculation the right-hander was tipping his pitches, especially after TV cameras showed Bryce Harper — who had just hit a homer in the bottom of the first inning off McCullers — call over Alec Bohm and whisper something into his ear. Bohm then led off the bottom of the second with a home run.
Some noted the potential irony of the Astros, whose lone World Series title, in 2017, was tainted by a sign-stealing scandal, could be hurt by a Phillies team that may have picked something up from McCullers. But both teams said it wasn’t the case.
Asked about the conversation between Harper and Bohm, McCullers placed the blame firmly on himself.
“I think guys have conversations all the time before at-bats and innings,’’ McCullers said. “I’m not gonna sit here and say anything like that. I got whooped. End of story.”
Perhaps for now.
For his part, Harper said he was simply passing along “information” to Bohm.
“I think anytime you have information, you want to be able to give that to your teammates at any point,’’ Harper said. “So anytime I can help my teammates, throughout the whole season we’ve done that.”
Asked what Harper told him, Bohm smiled and said, “Nothing.”
As to whether what Harper told him was helpful, Bohm grinned again and said, “Maybe.”
McCullers’ night got worse, as Brandon Marsh followed Bohm’s second-inning homer with a two-out blast later in the inning.
After McCullers recovered to pitch well in the third and fourth innings, Baker kept him in the game to face the top of the lineup a third time. This time, McCullers gave up back-to-back home runs by Kyle Schwarber (a two-run shot) and Rhys Hoskins to finally end his outing with the Astros down by seven runs.
Baker said he didn’t want to use up too much of his bullpen and had been encouraged by how McCullers had seemingly settled down in the third and fourth innings.
And he agreed that McCullers was not giving away his pitches.
“That’s not anything I noticed,’’ Baker said. “Guys are always looking for something, always looking to see if they’re tipping their pitches. We didn’t see anything. Sometimes they just hit you.”
If there is a Game 7 in Houston on Sunday, McCullers is expected to get the start, so the Astros will have to determine just what went wrong in Game 3.
McCullers missed much of the regular season with arm trouble and was on the ropes throughout his start against the Yankees in The Bronx in Game 4 of the ALCS. The Yankees, however, weren’t able to get to McCullers as the Phillies did on Tuesday.
The 29-year-old entered the game with a 2.77 ERA in 68 ¹/₃ innings over 18 postseason games and had given up just four home runs in 47 ²/₃ innings during the regular season.
McCullers said he was in a “little bit of disbelief” about the outcome.
“Give those guys credit,’’ he said. “They play excellent in this ballpark and they beat me up.”
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