PHILADELPHIA — There was talk, mostly rooted in Bryce Harper‘s pre-at-bat conversation with Alec Bohm, that Lance McCullers Jr. might have been tipping his pitches on Tuesday night. There was talk that the nine-day layoff, further prolonged by Monday’s postponement, might have played a part in the starter looking uncharacteristically rusty. McCullers didn’t want to hear any of it.
“I got whupped,” he said. “End of story.”
McCullers got beat in a way no man ever has this time of year. He gave up five home runs, the most ever allowed by a single pitcher in a single postseason outing, and made it a point to dismiss any excuses in the aftermath of the Houston Astros‘ 7-0 defeat to the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 3 of the World Series.
“We got beat up pretty bad, and I got beat pretty bad,” McCullers said. “I obviously wanted to pitch well, and pitch much better than I did, but at the end of the day, all I can do at this point is get ready to go for a potential Game 7.”
The Astros will need to win two of these next three games to get there. The Phillies, who won 19 fewer regular-season games, have grabbed a 2-1 Series lead by completing an improbable five-run comeback in Game 1 and never letting the Astros breathe in Game 3.
Harper, slashing .382/.414/.818 in these playoffs, turned on a first-pitch, hanging breaking ball and lined it to right field to give the Phillies a 2-0 lead in the first inning. Bohm then led off the second by lining a first-pitch sinker out to left, and Brandon Marsh followed with another solo homer on a 2-0 slider, putting the Astros in a 4-0 hole.
The emphatic blows came in the fifth, just after McCullers had seemingly settled in. Kyle Schwarber waited on a 1-2 changeup slightly down and launched it 443 feet to straightaway center field, clearing the arborvitae trees. Five pitches later, Rhys Hoskins turned on a slider to give the Phillies back-to-back home runs and a 7-0 lead.
McCullers exited then, perhaps a little later than he should have. Astros manager Dusty Baker had let him see the top of the Phillies’ lineup a third time, even though he was clearly reeling earlier.
“He had had two good innings, two real good innings,” Baker said, referencing the third and fourth innings, when McCullers retired six consecutive batters. “And then they hit a blooper, a homer, and then I couldn’t get anybody loose. I mean, it was my decision.”
McCullers spent most of the 2022 season recovering from a setback to the flexor pronator strain that made him unavailable for the final two rounds of last year’s playoffs. He returned in mid-August and immediately pitched effectively, posting a 2.27 ERA through eight regular-season starts and a 2.45 ERA in his first couple of postseason appearances. He fell within the top 15% in ground ball percentage and home run rate among those who made at least five starts — and then he saw the complete opposite play out in his most important appearance.
McCullers denied that pitch-tipping was at fault.
“This has nothing to do with tipping,” he said, dismissing speculation that began with Harper getting in Bohm’s ear moments before he hit the first McCullers pitch he saw for a home run.
The Astros’ co-pitching coach, Joshua Miller, echoed similar thoughts.
“We didn’t identify anything specific today,” Miller said. “It’s something that we always monitor and look into.”
But McCullers nonetheless approached this outing with a very predictable trait: Through his first two postseason starts, he had thrown only one fastball to opposing left-handed hitters. Lefties were basically able to narrow their selection to either McCullers’ curveball or slider, the two pitches he throws most often, and they rarely missed their chances. Three of the homers McCullers gave up — to Harper, Marsh and Schwarber — were to left-handed hitters. He totaled just one swing and miss against lefties in Game 3, a sign to Miller that his curveball, his best pitch against them, was not sharp.
“Listen,” McCullers said, “I am who I am. I’m going to throw a lot of off-speed. Everyone knows that.”
One hundred and eighty-seven starting pitchers threw at least 750 pitches this season, and only one of them, Edward Cabrera of the Miami Marlins, threw fastballs less often than McCullers, who threw either a cutter or a sinker just 32.3% of the time. Against lefties, that rate dropped to less than 25% — and became even more pronounced in the postseason.
McCullers said he didn’t like the location on his curveball to Harper but that the quality of his pitches was good enough.
“I would check on the iPads; my stuff was there,” McCullers said. “The movement was there. The location, for the most part, was there. I made a couple mistakes, and unfortunately for me, they hit it out of the ballpark.”
Before Tuesday night, McCullers hadn’t allowed a home run on any of the 651 off-speed pitches he had thrown this season. Then four of them went out. The Phillies had seen him near the end of the regular season, when McCullers pitched six innings of one-run ball on Oct. 3, and had gathered better intel on the shape of his breaking balls.
If McCullers pitches again, it’ll be in Game 7, from Houston, on Sunday night.
The Astros need to earn their way there.
“I still believe if we get to that point, I’m the best guy to take the ball,” McCullers said. “I just got to pitch better. That’s it.”
After giving up Ohtani’s 431-foot blast, Misiorowski responded with another dominant outing. He struck out a career-high 12 batters — including two-way superstar Ohtani in the third inning — to lead the Brewers to a 3-1 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Tuesday night.
“It’s Shohei Ohtani,” Misiorowski said. “You kind of expect [that]. It’s cool to see him do it in action, but it fires me up even more coming back the next at-bat and striking him out. I’m right there. I think it was a moment of like, ‘OK, now we go.'”
Misiorowski, whose fastball routinely tops 100 mph, threw an 88.2 mph curveball on an 0-2 count to Ohtani, who crushed it for his 31st homer. That’s the most by a Dodgers player before the All-Star break.
It was the 21st career leadoff homer for the three-time MVP, who struck out swinging on a curveball in the third and walked to start the sixth. That was the only walk given up by Misiorowski, who scattered four hits.
“Really good stuff, aggressive in the zone,” Ohtani said through an interpreter. “But what really stood out to me was his command and control.”
Misiorowski outdueled three-time Cy Young Award winner Clayton Kershaw, who surpassed 3,000 career strikeouts in his previous outing. Asked Monday about his matchup with Misiorowski, Kershaw said he only knew that the 6-foot-7 right-hander threw hard.
“I know him now, huh?” Kershaw said Tuesday. “That was super impressive. That was unbelievable. It was really special. Everything. Obviously the velo, but he’s got four pitches, commands the ball. I don’t know how you hit that, honestly. That’s just really tough.”
Misiorowski was glad to get Kershaw’s attention.
“I saw something online that he didn’t now who I was, so I hope he knows me now,” Misiorowski said. “It’s kind of cool.”
In five starts since the Brewers called him up from the minors, Misiorowski has already beaten Kershaw and 2024 NL Rookie of the Year Paul Skenes. In another outing, Misiorowski carried a perfect game into the seventh inning.
“He’s just broken the shell,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “He’s just out of the egg, all arms and legs. He’s still got gooey stuff coming off, you can see it, all arms and legs, but there’s something special about him.”
The numbers would indicate as much. Misiorowski is 4-1 with a 2.81 ERA and has given up only 12 hits in 25⅔ innings.
He topped out at 101.6 mph and threw 20 pitches of at least 100 on Tuesday. He also threw 19 curveballs after using curves only 10% of the time before Tuesday.
He was coming off his only shaky performance, giving up five runs — including a grand slam by Brandon Nimmo — and three walks over 3⅔ innings Wednesday in a 7-3 loss to the New York Mets.
It looked as if it might be more of the same after Ohtani went deep. Misiorowski responded by striking out 12 of the next 16 batters.
“I think that’s my job, is to figure it out on the fly,” he said. “I feel like I did it tonight.”
He got out of a jam in the sixth. The Dodgers trailed 2-1 and had runners on second and third with one out, but third baseman Andruw Monasterio fielded a grounder and threw out Ohtani at the plate, and Misiorowski retired Michael Conforto on a grounder.
Misiorowski pumped his fist as he headed toward the dugout, then watched the Brewers’ bullpen nail down the win.
“It’s so satisfying,” Misiorowski said. “It’s just a dream come true, to do what I did.”
Bailey became just the third catcher in MLB history to hit a walk-off, inside-the-park home run, joining the Chicago Cubs’ Pat Moran in 1907 and the Washington Nationals’ Bennie Tate in 1926.
Bailey’s homer would have been an outside-the-park home run in 29 of 30 ballparks, with Oracle Park being the exception.
Mike Yastrzemski reached base twice and scored to help the Giants to their sixth win in seven games.
Bailey, who grounded into a double play and struck out in two of his previous at-bats, then smashed a 1-0 fastball from Jordan Romano (1-4) into right-center field that ricocheted off the brick part of the wall.
Ryan Walker (2-3) retired one batter, with two on in the top of the ninth, to earn the win.
Phillies All-Star Kyle Schwarber had two hits, including his team-leading 28th home run.
Schwarber flew out, struck out and was hit by a pitch before homering off Giants reliever Spencer Bivens into McCovey Cove. Brandon Marsh, who singled as a pinch hitter leading off the inning, scored on the play.
Two days after being named an All-Star for the second time in his career, Robbie Ray gave up four hits and one run in 5⅔ innings.
BALTIMORE — The New York Mets consider Juan Soto to be a bona fide All-Star, despite the snub he received from those who selected the National League squad for the Midsummer Classic on July 15.
Soto, in his first year with the Mets, has performed well enough to earn the respect of his manager and teammates. In their opinion, he’s deserving of a place in the All-Star Game next week in Atlanta.
“He’s an All-Star for us,” manager Carlos Mendoza said Tuesday night after the Mets beat Baltimore 7-6. “It’s frustrating, but I’m hoping in the next couple of days we hear something and he makes it.”
Soto drove in the winning run with a sharp single on the first pitch of the 10th inning. That capped a night in which he went 3 for 5 to raise his batting average to .269 with 21 homers and 52 RBIs.
Soto has walked 72 times, by far the most in the majors, but he can also lash out at a pitcher when necessary.
“He’s got a pretty good understanding of what the pitchers are trying to do to him,” Mendoza said. “There is his awareness of the game, he’s going to see pitchers. There are times when he’s going to be aggressive. Tonight was one of those nights. First pitch in the 10th, he’s attacking.”
Soto made the All-Star team as a member of the Nationals, Padres and Yankees each year since 2021. The streak appears to be over. But his teammates believe he deserves to go.
“What he done all year is just incredible, and the results are good enough,” Mets starting pitcher Clay Holmes said. “The consistency he’s showed up with, at the at-bats he’s taken, is more than an All-Star. He’s one of the best in the game and a big part of our lineup.”
Soto seems rather philosophical about the snub.
“Sometimes, you’re going to make it and sometimes you don’t,” he told reporters after Sunday’s loss to the Yankees. “It’s just part of baseball.”
