Lance McCullers Jr. had a horrible, terrible, no good, very bad day for the Houston Astros in Game 3 of the World Series.
The normally-stellar Stros pitcher actually made history on Tuesday night — not the kind you want to make — by giving up a whopping five home runs. That’s the most ever allowed by a pitcher in a playoffs appearance. Yikes.
But Twitter was rampant with speculation: Was McCullers tipping his pitches? Was he giving something away with his delivery that might have given the Phils an indication of what was coming? Is that what Bryce Harper told Alec Bohm before Bohm mashed one over the Citizens Bank Park fence?
Let’s check out the videos:
Was it the leg kick?
Was Lance McCullers tipping with his leg kick? pic.twitter.com/qHcqCy7xkY
— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) November 2, 2022
McCullers Sinker/Slider (both from the same at bat). pic.twitter.com/vpR194bBq6
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) November 2, 2022
Maybe not?
For what it’s worth I don’t think McCullers was tipping tonight, at least with the leg kick.
The video/pics going around are kind of cherry-picked… looks like he was varying his leg kick the whole game on all pitches. It wasn’t something he only did when throwing one pitch
— Jeremy Frank (@MLBRandomStats) November 2, 2022
Was it his glove height?
Pedro Martinez did a great breakdown:
Was Lance McCullers Jr. tipping his pitches?@45PedroMartinez breaks down how the @Phillies did damage after noticing the details 💥#MLBTonight | @CameronMaybin | #WorldSeries pic.twitter.com/alFeALo3nx
— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) November 2, 2022
I would strongly suspect if you’re looking at this from the hitters view McCullers is actually tipping with his glove height (breaking balls have been higher) and not his leg kick
— Jarrett Seidler (@jaseidler) November 2, 2022
McCullers denied it, and Harper wouldn't say
Which all makes sense.
Lance McCullers Jr: “I got beat man. They hit a lot of solid pitches I thought. At the end of the day we got beat pretty bad and I got beat up pretty bad.” Said he wasn’t tipping pitches: “They just had good at-bats.” pic.twitter.com/DpWJxQb08M
— Mark Berman (@MarkBermanFox26) November 2, 2022
Lol. Tom Verducci tried two times to get Bryce Harper to admit Lance McCullers was tipping pitches. But Bryce wouldn’t bite. pic.twitter.com/9dArSD9l5Q
— ChuckModi (@ChuckModi1) November 2, 2022
