PHILADELPHIA — Bryce Harper set the tone, and the rest of the Philadelphia Phillies followed with a power surge.
Harper homered in the first inning, the Phillies added four more long balls and Ranger Suarez tossed five scoreless innings as Philadelphia blitzed the Houston Astros 7-0 in Game 3 of the World Series on Tuesday.
Alec Bohm, Brandon Marsh, Kyle Schwarber and Rhys Hoskins also homered to help the Phillies grab a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series. The Phillies tied a World Series record with five home runs.
Game 4 will be held Wednesday in Philadelphia.
The sixth-seeded Phillies, who qualified for the playoffs with a win at Houston in the 160th game of the regular season, are now two victories away from a championship.
“You don’t worry about the regular season when the postseason gets going,” said Harper, who has 12 extra-base hits in the playoffs, the most ever by a Phillies player.
After Harper socked his sixth homer of the postseason, it looked as if he was giving advice to Bohm in the dugout.
The scouting report paid off, as Bohm and Brandon Marsh both went deep in the second inning.
“Up and down the lineup, we’ve got guys who are known as some of the best hitters in the game,” Bohm said. “I’d be foolish not to talk to them.”
Suarez (2-0) gave up three hits and a walk while striking out four. Since rain pushed back Game 3 by one day, the Phillies were able to go with Suarez instead of Noah Syndergaard.
“I think Ranger really pitched well,” Philadelphia manager Rob Thomson said. “The poise is through the roof. Nothing really bothers him.”
After Suarez exited, Connor Brogdon, Kyle Gibson, Nick Nelson and Andrew Bellatti each threw one inning apiece to complete the shutout.
The Astros compiled five hits, all singles by five different players.
Houston starter Lance McCullers Jr. (0-1) lasted only 4 1/3 innings and allowed seven runs on six hits and one walk with five strikeouts. He served up five homers, the most ever by a pitcher in a single postseason game.
“It was kind of mind-boggling because he doesn’t give up homers,” Astros manager Dusty Baker said of McCullers, whose rate of allowing 0.72 homers per nine innings in 2021 led the National League. McCullers nearly duplicated that figure this year, winding up at 0.76.
Baker was asked if McCullers was tipping his pitches.
“We didn’t see anything,” Baker said. “Sometimes they just hit you.”
McCullers added, “This has nothing to do with tipping. Clearly they had a good game plan against me and they executed better than I did.”
The Phillies went ahead 2-0 in the bottom of the first inning when Harper launched a two-run shot to right field with two outs. It was Harper’s sixth homer of the postseason — and the fourth to put his team ahead.
The Astros had runners on first and third with two outs in the second, but Chas McCormick was called out on strikes to end the frame.
Bohm and Marsh each hit a solo homer in the bottom of the second for a 4-0 lead. The Phillies became the first team in World Series history to hit three homers in the first two innings of a game.
Houston’s Jose Altuve popped out in foul ground with runners on first and second to end a scoring threat in the fifth.
Philadelphia took a 6-0 advantage in the bottom of the fifth when Schwarber blasted a two-run homer to center. Hoskins followed with a solo shot to left for a seven-run lead.
Jeremy Pena and Alex Bregman each walked for the Astros in the eighth, but with two outs, Kyle Tucker flied out to the warning track in left.
Bellatti set the Astros down in order in the ninth.
“We just got to go back to the drawing board and figure was it them tonight or was it Lance tonight not having his stuff,” Baker said. “So we’ll go back and analyze it. We’ve had 10 minutes to analyze it. That’s not very much time. So we’ll go back and we’ll figure it out.”
–Andy Jasner, Field Level Media
