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Harper homered in the first inning, the Phillies added four more
long balls and Ranger Suarez tossed five scoreless innings as
Philadelphia blitzed the Houston Astros 7-0 in Game 3 of the
World Series on Tuesday.
Alec Bohm, Brandon Marsh, Kyle Schwarber and Rhys Hoskins also
homered to help the Phillies grab a 2-1 lead in the
best-of-seven series. The Phillies tied a World Series record
with five home runs.
Game 4 will be held Wednesday in Philadelphia.
The sixth-seeded Phillies, who qualified for the playoffs with a
win at Houston in the 160th game of the regular season, are now
two victories away from a championship.
"You don't worry about the regular season when the postseason
gets going," said Harper, who has 12 extra-base hits in the
playoffs, the most ever by a Phillies player.
After Harper socked his sixth homer of the postseason, it looked
as if he was giving advice to Bohm in the dugout.
The scouting report paid off, as Bohm and Brandon Marsh both
went deep in the second inning.
"Up and down the lineup, we've got guys who are known as some of
the best hitters in the game," Bohm said. "I'd be foolish not to
talk to them."
Suarez (2-0) gave up three hits and a walk while striking out
four. Since rain pushed back Game 3 by one day, the Phillies
were able to go with Suarez instead of Noah Syndergaard.
"I think Ranger really pitched well," Philadelphia manager Rob
Thomson said. "The poise is through the roof. Nothing really
bothers him."
After Suarez exited, Connor Brogdon, Kyle Gibson, Nick Nelson
and Andrew Bellatti each threw one inning apiece to complete the
shutout.
The Astros compiled five hits, all singles by five different
players.
Houston starter Lance McCullers Jr. (0-1) lasted only 4 1/3
innings and allowed seven runs on six hits and one walk with
five strikeouts. He served up five homers, the most ever by a
pitcher in a single postseason game.
"It was kind of mind-boggling because he doesn't give up
homers," Astros manager Dusty Baker said of McCullers, whose
rate of allowing 0.72 homers per nine innings in 2021 led the
National League. McCullers nearly duplicated that figure this
year, winding up at 0.76.
Baker was asked if McCullers was tipping his pitches.
"We didn't see anything," Baker said. "Sometimes they just hit
you."
McCullers added, "This has nothing to do with tipping. Clearly
they had a good game plan against me and they executed better
than I did."
The Phillies went ahead 2-0 in the bottom of the first inning
when Harper launched a two-run shot to right field with two
outs. It was Harper's sixth homer of the postseason -- and the
fourth to put his team ahead.
The Astros had runners on first and third with two outs in the
second, but Chas McCormick was called out on strikes to end the
frame.
Bohm and Marsh each hit a solo homer in the bottom of the second
for a 4-0 lead. The Phillies became the first team in World
Series history to hit three homers in the first two innings of a
game.
Houston's Jose Altuve popped out in foul ground with runners on
first and second to end a scoring threat in the fifth.
Philadelphia took a 6-0 advantage in the bottom of the fifth
when Schwarber blasted a two-run homer to center. Hoskins
followed with a solo shot to left for a seven-run lead.
Jeremy Pena and Alex Bregman each walked for the Astros in the
eighth, but with two outs, Kyle Tucker flied out to the warning
track in left.
Bellatti set the Astros down in order in the ninth.
"We just got to go back to the drawing board and figure was it
them tonight or was it Lance tonight not having his stuff,"
Baker said. "So we'll go back and analyze it. We've had 10
minutes to analyze it. That's not very much time. So we'll go
back and we'll figure it out."
--Andy Jasner, Field Level Media
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