Dusty’s costly long leash echoes Game 1 loss

PHILADELPHIA — The ear-splitting tolls of the rocking red neon Liberty Bell have ceased, the raucous party has streamed into Center City, and the record books indicate that Lance McCullers Jr. stands alone as the only pitcher to surrender five home runs in a postseason game.

Yet much in the way that Yogi Berra (a one-time Astros coach) once thanked an honoring audience for “making this night necessary,” Houston manager Dusty Baker claims a slice of this ignominious distinction in the Astros’ 7-0 loss to the Phillies on Tuesday night in Game 3 of the World Series, now the only manager ever to watch his pitcher surrender that many homers in a postseason contest.

“The thought process,” Baker explained, “was the fact that he had two good innings, two real good innings. Then they hit a blooper, a homer, and then I couldn’t get anybody loose. I mean, it was my decision.”

It is the second time in this Fall Classic that Baker’s moves (or lack thereof) have cost the Astros, who now trail the best-of-seven series, 2-1. Baker was hesitant to pull ace Justin Verlander in Game 1 at Minute Maid Park, watching the right-hander cough up a five-run lead in a game that Houston lost, 6-5, in 10 innings.

This time, Baker’s faith in McCullers lasted too long. The skipper selected McCullers for the Game 3 start over Cristian Javier in part because Houston expected McCullers to keep the ball within Citizens Bank Park’s cozy confines, but Bryce Harper teed off on the first pitch he saw after a leadoff walk to Kyle Schwarber, providing the Phils with a quick 2-0 lead.

Alec Bohm led off the second inning with a homer, and television cameras caught Harper relaying a message to Bohm immediately before his at-bat. Brandon Marsh added a solo homer later in the third. If the Phillies knew something, they weren’t about to spill the goods.

“I’ll just say that our analytics team is very good at picking up tendencies,” Phillies outfielder Nick Castellanos said.

The Harper and Marsh homers both came on breaking balls, marking the first time in his career that McCullers has allowed multiple home runs off breaking pitches in a start. McCullers said that his rough outing had “nothing to do with tipping,” and Baker said he was unaware of any tells.

“Guys are always looking for something, always looking to see if they’re tipping their pitches,” Baker said. “We didn’t see anything. Sometimes they just hit you; you know what I mean? Who knows, they might have been sitting on off-speed pitches, because that’s what they hit out of the ballpark.”

To Baker’s point about McCullers having “two good innings,” the righty did settle down, keeping Houston’s deficit at four runs while retiring eight consecutive batters.

“At that point in the game, I don’t feel like it was over,” McCullers said. “I don’t feel like we were completely out of it.”

But when Marsh stroked a one-out single in the fifth, the Astros’ bullpen sat idle with the top of the order coming up — a stable of thoroughbreds rested and ready after two off-days, having posted the Majors’ lowest team bullpen ERA during the regular season at 2.80. 

The group, nine deep, had collectively thrown just 7 2/3 innings — all in Games 1 and 2 — over the previous nine days. They logged just 12 2/3 innings in a four-game sweep of the Yankees, bringing the total innings for the unit to 20 1/3 in the 17 days since completing a sweep of the Mariners in the American League Division Series on Oct. 15.

“You don’t want to go through your whole pitching staff,” Baker said. “4-0 in this ballpark is really nothing, the way the ball flies here. So what can I say? The line score looks bad, but they were just hitting us.”

After Marsh reached, Schwarber tattooed a changeup over the center-field wall for a two-run homer, at which point righty Ryne Stanek began to toss in the bullpen. Stanek could not get warm quickly enough to keep McCullers from facing Rhys Hoskins, who put the game further out of reach by belting a slider for a solo blast.

“The home run by Schwarber was a little bit of a dagger there,” McCullers said.

Would the outcome have been different with a quicker hook? Debatable, considering the Astros were blanked, but the 7-0 deficit allowed Phillies manager Rob Thomson to finish the game with his low-leverage relievers. The Phillies’ top four bullpen arms — Seranthony Domínguez, José Alvarado, David Robertson and Zach Eflin — have now had four days of rest and will be able to go in Games 4 and 5 and still be able to go in Games 6 and 7 in Houston after an off-day on Friday, if it comes to that.

Baker has been snake bitten on the game’s biggest stage before. This is Baker’s 12th postseason as a manager, where a combination of questionable moves and player letdowns leave him still counting the most regular-season wins among skippers without a ring.

“We’ve 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 we’ll figure it out.”