Let’s skip the speculating and the investigating and the lip-reading. Two innings into World Series Game 3, the Houston Astros didn’t need to know whether Lance McCullers Jr. was tipping his pitches to know that the Philadelphia Phillies were all over them.
Bryce Harper, Alec Bohm and Brandon Marsh went yard off McCullers before he got the sixth out, staking the Phillies to a 4-0 lead that turned into a 7-0 romp. Whether manager Dusty Baker and the Astros believed McCullers was giving the Phillies a hint at what pitch was coming — McCullers denied that being an issue after the game — or thought he was simply getting hit hard, the conclusion in a World Series game should have been the same: Give someone else the ball.