Game 3 was worth the wait for the Philadelphia Phillies. After rain forced Game 3 to be postponed Monday, the Phillies and Houston Astros were able to continue the World Series on Tuesday night at Citizens Bank Park, and the Phillies rode five home runs to a 7-0 win (box score). They lead the best-of-seven series 2-1. A championship is two wins away for Philadelphia.
Remarkably, the Phillies did not take an at-bat with a runner in scoring position until the sixth inning, after they’d already built a 7-0 lead. Bryce Harper opened the scoring with a two-run homer in the first, and the Phillies kept piling on against Lance McCullers Jr. from there. The Phillies are a perfect 6-0 at home this postseason.
Here are a few takeaways from Game 3 of the World Series.
1. Harper gave the Phillies the lead (again)
Prior to Game 3, the last pitch Harper saw at Citizens Bank Park sailed over the left field wall for a go-ahead two-run home run in the eighth inning of NLCS Game 5. That was a pennant-winning homer. And on the first pitch Harper saw in Game 3, he clobbered a go-ahead two-run homer into the right-field seats. Homers on back-to-back pitches at home.
McCullers’ reaction tells you all you need to know:
“Just trying to get a good pitch over the plate,” Harper said during an in-dugout interview with Fox (video). “We faced (McCullers) late in the year and we saw him pretty well. That’s a good team over there, so being able to strike first is huge.”
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The home run was Harper’s sixth of the postseason and his fourth go-ahead homer this October. Only Albert Pujols has hit more go-ahead homers in a single postseason. He had five in 2004. The Astros did well to limit Harper in Games 1 and 2 (2 for 8 with two singles and a walk), but it was only a matter of time until he took one of those game-changing swings. It came early in Game 3.
2. Bohm hit a milestone homer
Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the 1,000th home run in World Series history. Alec Bohm did the honors:
The first home run in World Series history was hit in Game 1 of the 1903 World Series, when Jimmy Sebring of the Pittsburgh Pirates took Cy Young of the Boston Americans deep. Cy Young, eh? Can’t get any more brand name than that. Tuesday’s Game 3 was the first time in World Series history a team hit three home runs in the first two innings, if you can believe that.
It should be noted that before Bohm’s at-bat, Harper called him over to the dugout railing to impart some wisdom. Bohm wouldn’t reveal what Harper told him during a dugout interview (why would he?), but Bryce has a reputation for being one of the best in the game at picking up subtle tells in a pitcher’s delivery. Is it possible McCullers was tipping his pitches in Game 3?
3. McCullers had a historically bad night
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