The Phillies Lineup Read Lance McCullers Like a Book, Tally 5 Homers, Philly May Explode
Lance McCullers, pitcher for the Houston Astros, is weird. He barely ever throws a fastball, preferring to paint every corner of the strike zone with breaking balls.
When thrown well, all of those offspeed pitches leave hitters absolutely befuddled.
Well, in the game three of the World Series, the first to take place in Philly, the hitters were not befuddled.
They were locked-in.
Bryce Harper saw something he really liked from McCullers in his first at-bat, and homered off of the first pitch he saw of the night.
And it was only going to get worse for McCullers.
Bohm went yard on the first pitch of the inning. McCullers was clearly getting rattled.
The Phillies had his number. It was like they knew exactly what he was throwing. They might have. It looked like McCullers may have been unintentionally tipping his pitches.
Some fans had an idea what Bryce may have seen.
McCullers' knee seemed to be indicating which pitch he was about to let loose.
He either didn't notice, or got so spooked that he over-corrected. Because things started to get ridiculous.
First, young Santa Claus Brandon Marsh got one just over the fence, bouncing the ball out of the glove of a young fan.
(I'm sure the kid wasn't too concerned about losing the ball considering his team was massacring the opposing pitcher, but Nick Castellanos did end up tossing him a ball anyway, so he did get to take something home.)
The Phillies slowed down for a couple innings and it looked like McCullers was going to right the ship.
Then the fifth inning happened.
Kyle Schwarber cranked one 443 feet into the trees and on the very next at-bat, Rhys Hoskins melted an awful hanger into left field.
McCullers gave up 5 dingers to 5 different Phillies before manager Dusty Baker finally relieved him.
And as expected when a historically bad performance like this happens, social media was in top form to roast the Astros' opener.