Was Lance McCullers tipping his pitches? No, ‘I just got whupped.’

PHILADELPHIA — After Bryce Harper had rounded the bases, shouting “This is my house!” into a Fox TV camera as he made his way to home plate, he made sure to relay a message to his teammates.

“Bohmer! Bohmer!,” Harper yelled from the Citizens Bank home dugout, trying to get the attention of on-deck hitter Alec Bohm. When Bohm walked over and leaned across the railing, Harper cupped a hand to his mouth and yelled something into the third baseman’s ear.

What was said will be the subject of debate for a while. What we do know: Bohm — just like Harper — homered on a first-pitch breaking ball to lead off the bottom of the second. It was the second of a World Series record five home runs surrendered by the Astros’ Lance McCullers in a 7-0 Game 3 loss Tuesday.

On the TV broadcast, Hall of Fame pitcher John Smoltz said he believed McCullers was tipping his pitches, which is basically the same as having a tell in poker. You’re tipping your pitches when there’s a difference in your delivery indicating to the batter what pitch you’re throwing. Detectives on social media attempted to piece together what McCullers may have been doing wrong, but a lot of those were shot down by people who should know, like former Giants All-Star pitcher Russ Ortiz, who said McCullers’ issues were with predictable pitch selection instead of tipping.

McCullers, himself, also thought all the tipping speculation was overblown.

“This has nothing to do with tipping,” said McCullers, who, like he did most of this season, refused to throw his fastball against lefthanded hitters like Harper. “Clearly, they had a good game plan against me and they executed better than I did.”

Astros manager Dusty Baker said he and his coaches didn’t pick up on anything McCullers — who gave up homers to Harper, Bohm, Rhys Hoskins, Kyle Schwarber and Brandon Marsh — might be doing to give away his pitches and his catcher Martin Maldonado agreed.

“I think it’s about execution. I feel like we didn’t execute,” Maldonado said. “Too much of the slider on the plate to Hoskins, sinker ran all the way back against Bohm, 2-0 slider (Marsh) hit for a home run, changeup over the plate on Schwarber. Those guys have proved in the playoffs that can slug and it’s our job to stop it.”

Whatever Harper told Bohm in that brief, yet much-debated moment, likely will remain a secret, but Harper didn’t deny that he was trying to help his teammate with something he picked up on during his at bat. It’s something the Astros have done often in the past, including Alex Bregman appearing to share with his teammates about a tell Rays ace Tyler Glasnow was showing in the decisive Game 5 of the 2019 American League Division Series.

“I think anytime you have information you want to be able to give that to your teammates at any point,” Harper said. “Throughout the whole season, we’ve done that.”

Bohm stuck to one word answers when questioned about his conversation with Harper.

What did did he tell you? “Nothing,” a smiling Bohm replied.

Whatever he said, was it helpful? “Maybe.”

McCullers wasn’t concerned with Harper sharing anything he might have observed.

“I think guys have conversations all the time before at bats and before innings and things like that,” McCullers said. “I’m not going to sit here and say anything like that. I got whupped. End of story.”

Hoskins, who ended McCullers’ night by homering off him in the fifth inning, said any information about a pitcher you can get from teammates is always a big help.

“Any little tidbit of information about pitch shape, how it looks coming out of his hand, certain lanes to look in, that type of thing. Any type of information you can get walking up, you feel more prepared,” the Phillies first baseman said. “I don’t know what Bryce told Bohmer. Obviously, it worked. I’m going to tell him to tell it more. Any type of little tidbit of information is always good for us.”

Regardless of any tidbits being passed though the Phillies dugout, the Astros headed back to their hotel thinking it was nothing to be concerned about.

“Sometimes they just hit you. You know what I mean?,” Baker said.

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