When a pitcher allows a World Series record five home runs, it’s only natural for people to wonder if pitch-tipping was taking place.
But after the Phillies hit the five homers off him in a 7-0 win Tuesday in Game 3 of the World Series, Astros starter Lance McCullers said he wasn’t tipping his pitches.
“Listen, I am who I am. I’m going to throw a lot of off-speed,” McCullers told reporters, per the New York Times. “Everyone knows that.”
“I got beat, man, you know?” he added. “They hit a lot of solid pitches, I thought. But at the end of the day, we got beat pretty bad. And I got beat up pretty bad. I obviously wanted to pitch well and pitch better than I did. But at the end of the day, all I can do is go and get ready for Game 7.”
Others didn’t share McCullers’ belief as videos were widely shared on social media that seemed to show he’d been tipping his pitches.
And it sure appeared like Phillies star Bryce Harper picked up on something. Harper crushed a first-inning home run, then passed a piece of advice to Alec Bohm. On the first pitch of the second inning, Bohm lined a home run himself.
Harper was asked about the conversation with Bohm and if he’d seen something from McCullers.
“I think anytime you have information you want to be able to give that to your teammates at any point,” Harper told reporters. “So anytime I can help my teammates. Throughout the whole season we’ve done that and, yeah.”
On the MLB Network, Hall of Fame pitcher Pedro Martinez showed what he thought was pitch-tipping from McCullers.
Martinez used video to illustrate how Phillies batters knew a sinker was coming.
“When you take your glove that high on one pitch and then you don’t take it near that far on the other ones, then you’re really telling what is coming,” Martinez said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s a righty, a lefty, or whoever that is, they’re going to get you. Actually, I’m surprised to see it that drastic because it takes a lot less for them to pick it up when you’re in the big leagues.”