The World Series made its return to Citizens Bank Park as the Philadelphia Phillies hosted the Houston Astros for Game 3 of the Fall Classic. And Bryce Harper and the Phillies lineup immediately delivered in front of their raucous home crowd, hitting a two-run home run shot to right field off of Astros starter Lance McCullers Jr., who may or may not be caught tipping his pitches.
The Astros nearly got off scot-free during the bottom of the first inning after McCullers retired Rhys Hoskins and J.T. Realmuto in back-to-back at-bats to temporarily strand Kyle Schwarber, who drew a leadoff walk, at first base. However, Harper is clearly a man on a mission, and he immediately unloaded on the first pitch of his at-bat, sending a hanging 85-mph breaking ball from McCullers all the way to the right field bleachers.
When asked by FOX Sports' Ken Rosenthal in the Phillies dugout about how he was able to prepare himself to face the hard-throwing Lance McCullers, Bryce Harper was even-keeled, his eyes fixated on the prize, with his confidence about the Phillies' preparedness beaming through. He also made sure to pay respect to the Astros, as an early 2-0 lead doesn't really mean much against a team that won 106 games in the regular season.
“Just trying to get a good pitch over the plate. We faced him late in the year and we saw him pretty well. He's really tough. He's got that good slider and he's got that heater that he throws as well. It's a really good team over there so being able to strike first and get two-nothing is huge, and just got to keep going,” Harper said.
"Just trying to get a good pitch over the plate. We faced him late in the year and we saw him pretty well… That's a good team over there, so being able to strike first is huge."
– @bryceharper3 to @Ken_Rosenthal after hitting a 2-run homer for the @Phillies pic.twitter.com/dLvRcp5t0b
— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) November 2, 2022
Bryce Harper was right in that the Phillies did see McCullers' pitches pretty well during their 159th game of the season. The Phillies ended up shutting out the Astros 3-0 on the back of a dominant pitching performance from Aaron Nola in front of the Minute Maid Park crowd. During that game, the NL leader in home runs Kyle Schwarber went deep twice, leading off the game against McCullers with a long ball, to go along with his dinger in the eighth inning.
Alas, no one could have foreseen the home run explosion the Phillies would embark on as the game progressed, as the home team has hit five long balls off of McCullers to extend their lead to 7-0 in the top of the sixth inning. And it was Harper who set the tone yet again for the Phillies' inspired performance deep into the postseason.
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