Lance McCullers Jr. had a nightmare World Series start, as the Phillies take him deep five times in a 7-0 rout of the Astros.
Ranger Suarez got the ball for the Phillies and he hit the ground running in his first career World Series start, getting the first two out of the game on 2 pitches. Jose Altuve lined out to right field, on a ball that Nick Castellanos made a sliding catch on, and Jeremy Pena grounded out. Suarez then struck out Yordan Alvarez on a curveball to end his half of the first. Lance McCullers started off his nightmare start with a walk to Kyle Schwarber, throwing him nothing but breaking balls, Schwarber didn’t swing on any of the 6 thrown. McCullers then attacked Rhys Hoskins with sinkers to get ahead 0-2, then struck him out with a slider. J.T. Realmuto worked an eight pitch at-bat, but popped out on a slider that was left elevated in the zone. Bryce Harper then got the Phillies home run derby started, taking a first pitch curveball into the right center field seats for a 2-run bomb. Up to this point in the game McCullers had thrown 18 pitches, 13 of which were breaking balls. Also McCullers had only thrown 1 fastball to a left-handed hitter all postseason. Everyone in the building knew a curveball was coming, and to make it even worse McCullers hung it middle middle. With all of that data there is no doubt that Harper was sitting on the curve, if McCullers still wanted to throw him one he needed to be sure to put it in the dirt. McCullers then threw 3 straight sinkers to get Nick Castellanos to groundout.
Ranger Suarez got two groundouts from Alex Bregman and Kyle Tucker and looked as if he was going to run through the Astros lineup again, just like the first inning. But an infield hit from Yuli Gurriel and a single rocketed back up the middle by rookie David Hensley quieted the Philly crowd. In a two on, two out jam Ranger Suarez received the help of home plate umpire, Dan Iassogna, on not one but two pitches well inside the zone including the called third strike on Chas McCormick killing the Astros two out threat. After giving up a homer to Bryce Harper on a curveball, McCullers threw nothing but fastballs to close out the first inning. He continued this pattern into the second inning where leadoff man Alec Bohm jumped on a first pitch heater and belted it 109.2 mph off the bat for the Phillies second homer of the game. McCullers came back to strike out Bryson Stott on a backdoor slider and strikeout Jean Segura on a very similar pitch. After throwing 8 sliders in his last 12 pitches McCullers threw one more to Brandon Marsh, except he left it elevated in the zone and Marsh put it into the stands for the Phillies third homer of the game. Lance McCullers then threw a good curve to get Schwarber to groundout to end the inning.
Ranger Suarez started out the top of the third with another strikeout, this time catching Martin Maldonado looking at six straight pitches. The Phillies then bobble both of the balls put in play by Altuve and Pena, but still end up getting the outs on the Altuve lineout and Pena groundout. In the bottom of the third, Lance McCullers used his changeup as the out pitch to all three hitters in his 1-2-3 third. Getting both Hoskins and Realmuto to strike out on it and Harper to groundout on it. In 2022, McCullers changeup had a -1.5 RV/100.
The top of the fourth began with Ranger Suarez getting two ground balls to first off the bats of Yordan Alvarez and Alex Bregman. Brandon Marsh then stole a .500 xBA, 99.9 mph EV flyball off the bat of Kyle Tucker to end the inning. Ranger Suarez is cruising through the Astros order. McCullers also had a quick inning, needing only 9 pitches to get through his half of the fourth, getting Nick Castellanos and Bryson Stott to groundout and Alec Bohm to fly out. The highest xBA McCullers allowed in the inning was .120, he has settled in nicely since the Marsh homer.
Suarez started off yet another inning with two quick outs, getting Gurriel to groundout and Hensley to strike out on three pitches. It looked to be a super quick inning with Suarez getting ahead of McCormick 0-2, but Chas was able to work a walk. Maldonado then rocketed a sinker back up the middle at 106.6 mph off the bat for a single. The Astros had another two on, two out threat, but this time Jose Altuve left the zone for a fastball way inside and popped it out to first to kill the threat. Lance McCullers trotted back out to the mound for the bottom of the fifth, starting it off with a groundout from Segura. Brandon Marsh then pulled a changeup that caught way too much of the plate into right field for a one out single. Dusty Baker would then decide that McCullers should stay out to face the top of the order for a third time, despite allowing three homers in his 4.1 innings up to this point. That decision would bite him and the Astros immediately as Kyle Schwarber and Rhys Hoskins go back to back to blow the game wide open. Schwarber hammered a changeup 113.2 mph, and 443 feet to dead center field. Hoskins would follow him up by roping a center cut slider 105.2 mph into the left field stands for the Phillies fifth homer of the game. The Astros got burned by leaving a struggling starter in to face the top of the order for a third time, McCullers didn’t help that decision at all by missing his spots and especially leaving offspeed stuff in the middle of the zone, much like he had all night. Dusty would finally pull the plug on McCullers, who finished with an abysmal 4.1 IP, 7 ER, 5 HR statline. Ryne Stanek would make his first appearance in this World Series, the reliever finished his 2022 campaign with an Astros all-time record 1.15 reliever ERA. He continued that dominance by striking out Realmuto on 4 pitches and then Harper on 3 straight fastballs. Stanek’s 4-seamer was electric all year, carrying a .168 BAA, -2.7 RV/100, and an average velocity of 98.3 mph.
Connor Brogdon would be brought in to handle the top of the sixth, effectively ending Ranger Suarez night. Suarez would finish the game allowing only three hits across his five innings of work, holding the Astros scoreless in the process. He was in control the entire time, especially with the Philly crowd behind him. Brogdon would allow the first hitter he faced, Jeremy Pena, to single into right field. Yordan would then line up on the first pitch he saw, followed by Bregman popping out on the second pitch he saw. Brogdon would end the inning by striking out Kyle Tucker on a changeup which had 20 inches of horizontal break. Like Stanek, Jose Urquidy would make his first appearance in this World Series. Urquidy would allow the first two Phillies he faced to reach base, Castellanos with a single into right field and Bohm via the four pitch walk. He would then work around the two on, no out jam by striking out Bryson Stott on a perfectly placed changeup. Throwing Segura five straight fastballs, getting him to pop out to short and getting Brandon Marsh to fly out to left.
Kyle Gibson would work the top of the seventh against the bottom of the Astros lineup. Yuli Gurriel would fly out and David Hensley would strikeout. Chas McCormick would get on base with two outs, scorching a sinker back up the middle. However the nine-hole Maldonado would tap one back to Gibson to end the top half of the inning. Kyle Schwarber would start off the bottom of the seventh with a couple of loud foul balls, but he would ultimately end up striking out on an elevated changeup. Hoskins would then put a hard hit ball into play, but with a 40 degree launch angle, it would hold up for McCormick and be the second out of the bottom half of the inning. Urquidy would sit down Realmuto quick, striking him out on three pitches, pulling the string on him with a changeup.
In the top of the eighth, Nick Nelson faced the due up 1-2-3 of the Astros order. Nelson would get Altuve to groundout, and would even get ahead of Pena 1-2, before walking him. Yordan smoked a 3-1 fastball, 107.2 mph off the bat, but it was a shallow center field pop up because of the 60 degree launch angle. Bregman worked an excellent at-bat, fouling off six pitches on his way to an eleven pitch walk. This would make it the third time in the game where the Astros have a two on two out threat, but just like the first two nothing would come of it as Tucker flew out to left. Jose Urquidy would stay out to work his third relief inning of the night. Urquidy gave Harper four straight heaters resulting in a pop out to third. Castellanos would then whiff on back to back changeups for Urquidy’s fourth strikeout of the night. Bohm would be the last Phillies hitter to bat in game three, flying out to right field in foul territory. Jose Urquidy allowed only two Phillies to reach base in his three inning outing, they were the first two hitters he faced. All four of Urquidy’s strikeouts came on his changeup, which improved towards the end of the season, posting a 31.6% whiff rate with it in September. While Urquidy throwing the last three innings of a blow out doesn’t seem very big, him eating these innings allows Dusty Baker to have all of his bullpen arms available for game four, and over the length of this series keeps the amount of times in which the Phillies see the Astros arms lower than it could have been had Urquidy not thrown these innings.
In the top of the ninth, Andrew Bellatti goes 1-2-3 with a pop out, flyout, and strikeout to end the game.
The Phillies take a 2-1 series lead after winning the crucial game 3. With the rain postponement the Phillies will turn to Aaron Nola in game 4 to hopefully take a commanding 3-1 lead, while the Astros will go to Cristian Javier who is coming off of a start against the Yankees in the ALCS where he only allowed one hit. It is a must win game for the Astros if they want the series to return to Houston, while the Phillies will have a chance to set themselves up to win the series on their home field.