PHILADELPHIA — The Philly faithful had waited 4,746 days to host a World Series game, and then — cruelly — one more because of rain. Come Tuesday night, however, the skies above Citizens Bank Park were finally free of precipitation and full, instead, of fly balls clearing the outfield wall and sending the Phillies to a Game 3 victory as substantial as the jubilant sounds coming from the stands.
Bryce Harper, Alec Bohm, Brandon Marsh, Kyle Schwarber and Rhys Hoskins sent an already hyped audience into hysterics with their quintet of homers off Astros starter Lance McCullers Jr., and Ranger Suárez offset all that noise by keeping the dangerous Houston lineup quiet in a 7-0 victory that gave the Fightin’ Phils a 2-1 edge in the best-of-seven Fall Classic.
“It’s our fan base,” Harper said of the Phils being 6-0 at home in the postseason. “Plain and simple. They keep us going, keep us fired up. We were able to come out on the field today, they were all here and ready to go. They believe in us and we believe in them. So it’s been great.”
McCullers became the first pitcher not just in World Series history but in postseason history to allow five home runs in a game. The Phillies were on him like Cheez Whiz on a steak sandwich, and the crowd absolutely ate it up.
“I just thought we had a great approach,” Harper said. “We talked about it before the game — just trying to get on him early, trying to get on him often. He’s really good. He’s a really good postseason pitcher as well, and that’s a really good team over there. So we had to jump on him early. We’ve got to keep it going for the next two days and do our job, and hopefully end it here at home.”
We don’t yet know what Tuesday’s result means for the outcome of this Series. But in previous best-of-seven postseason sets that were tied at 1-1, the winner of Game 3 went on to take the series 69 percent (68 of 98) of the time.
So that’s one more thing for Phillies fans to cheer.
They were certainly cheering in the first inning, when Harper connected on the very first pitch he saw in his first home World Series game — a poorly placed knuckle curve that Bryce belted out to right-center field to make it 2-0. The following inning, Bohm led off by also going deep on McCullers’ first-pitch offering — this time a sinker that Bohm belted to left. Two outs later, Marsh lifted one to right, and the ball hit the glove of a fan before bouncing atop the wall. After a moment of confusion — and then a replay review — it was confirmed that the ball had gone out, and it was 4-0.
Astros manager Dusty Baker wasn’t done riding McCullers, though, and neither were the Phillies. With one out and one on in the fifth, Schwarber golfed a low changeup high and deep to dead center, pelting the batter’s eye greenery. Hoskins then immediately followed with a back-to-back shot to left that finally, mercifully convinced Baker to give McCullers the hook. But the damage was done, and the celebration was on.