The Philadelphia Phillies turned Game 3 of the World Series into batting practice, at the expense of Houston Astros starting pitcher Lance McCullers.
The Philadelphia Phillies hosted their first World Series game since 2009 on Tuesday night, as they took on the Houston Astros in Game 3. This entire postseason run, the Phillies are undefeated at Citizens Bank Park, so the odds appeared to be in their favor. But the Astros were bringing out Lance McCullers to start and hopefully give them a 2-1 lead in the World Series.
Game 3 essentially turned into a Home Run Derby for the Phillies, as they sent McCullers to the dugout in the fifth inning after hitting five home runs off of him to take a 7-0 lead.
Considering that this happened at the expense of the Astros, Twitter users had some fun trolling them for getting smoked early on in Game 3.
Twitter trolls Astros, Lance McCullers for giving up five homers in Game 3 against Phillies
Maybe the Astros punishment for 2017 was a curse that they would lose every World Series they appeared in to whichever plucky NL East team got hot midseason and snuck into the playoffs?
— Trent (@Trenciarte) November 2, 2022
If Astros lose this World Series they’re the AL version of the dodgers
— Giannis Auntiegotapoodle (@TooMuchMortons_) November 2, 2022
The Phillies are punishing the Astros more than Rob Manfred ever did
— Richard Staff (@RichardStaff) November 2, 2022
I think McCullers could go another few innings, Dusty.
— CogginToboggan (@CogginToboggan) November 2, 2022
Lance McCullers drinks for free in Philly tonight.
— Russ Joy (@JoyOnBroad) November 2, 2022
https://twitter.com/epilepticshrimp/status/1587621631396118529
I think the mistake McCullers is making is throwing meatballs over the plate to everybody.
— Tom Fornelli (@TomFornelli) November 2, 2022
The Phillies wasted little time in making a statement, as Bryce Harper crushed a two-run homer to right field in the bottom of the first inning.
Before the end of the inning, Harper gave third baseman Alec Bohm some advice prior to his first plate appearance of the game. Sure enough in the second inning, Bohm hit a line drive home run to left field to extend the lead to 3-0. Shortly afterwards, Brandon Marsh sent the ball just over the right field fence for a solo homer, giving Philadelphia a 4-0 lead.
While things did quiet down on the scoreboard in the third and fourth innings, Kyle Schwarber hit an absolute blast to dead center field to extend the lead to 6-0. Then, Rhys Hoskins hit a solo homer of his own to officially chase McCullers from the game.
With this, McCullers made the wrong kind of history. He now holds the record for allowing the most home runs in a World Series game ever. The previous record was four home runs.
The Phillies hosted their first World Series game in over a decade, and they turned it into batting practice.