PHILADELPHIA — Lance McCullers Jr. had just set a World Series record by surrendering five home runs in a game and he wasn’t having any of it. Not the pitch-tipping theories that were wildly circulating on social media, not the possibility that he was rusty after having pitched just twice since Oct. 3, none of it.
“Listen,” he said after the Astros had absorbed a 7-0 beating by the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 3 of the World Series. “I am who I am. I’m going to throw a lot of off-speed. Everyone knows that.”
The two-run home run Bryce Harper smashed in the first inning on a first-pitch curveball was in a poor location, McCullers said.