Tipping Or Not, Lance McCullers Jr. Makes Dubious World Series History

It was slightly over a week ago when Lance McCullers Jr. stood amidst a party inside Yankee Stadium, featuring loud music players drinking various beers from the ALCS trophy and other players dancing while holding brooms to signify a dominant sweep of the Yankees.

For McCullers it was sort of a validation about the Astros being able to make a fourth World Series and make their latest appearance after moving past their 2017 cheating scandal that got uncovered in the weeks following their seven-game loss to the Washington Nationals in a fluky series where the home team lost every time.

“A lot has transpired over the last few years,” he said after midnight on Oct. 24 “A lot has been said but there’s not a lot to say anymore man. We keep coming here. We keep facing the best of the best and we keep winning. When everything happened a few years ago, we knew the one thing that we could do is we could win, and we could win and win a lot. I understand people are still not going to like us. They’re going to boo us but at some point, you have to respect what we’re doing.”

Perhaps now you have to respect what the Phillies are doing, especially when they created a fluky situation of hitting five homers off McCullers in Game 3 of the World Series on Tuesday.

McCullers is the answer to the question of the trivia question of who threw 24 straight curveballs to beat the Yankees in Game 7 in 2017. Now he is the answer to the question of who the first pitcher is to allow five homers in a World Series game and the first to do so in any postseason game.

McCullers allowed a two-run homer to Bryce Harper, who as he continues this run it’s fair to wonder why the Yankees did not sign him. Then he allowed solo homers to Alec Bohm and Brandon Marsh before allowing a two-run drive to Kyle Schwarber and a solo homer to Rhys Hoskins.

That added up to 1,950 feet of homers for a pitcher who has allowed 57 homers in 718 2/3 regular season innings and 10 homers in 68 1/3 postseason innings before craning his neck five times in Game 3. It also led to the speculation of pitch tipping, something that in Yankee history appeared to occur in Game 6 of the 2001 World Series with Andy Pettitte and in Game 3 of the 2018 ALDS with Luis Severino in games where the Yankees lost by a combined margin of 31-3.

“I think anytime you have information you want to be able to give that to your teammates at any point,” Harper said in an attempt to downplay the tipping notion. “So anytime I can help my teammates. Throughout the whole season we’ve done that.”

As for Bohm, if he received any tips from Harper, he was not revealing.

Asked directly what Harper told you, Bohm stated: “Nothing”. Then asked did what Bryce tell you in your at-bat help, Bohm said: “Maybe”

Either way, it added an extra layer of intrigue even when internet investigators tried to figure it out after McCullers broke the previous dubious distinction of allowing four homers in a World Series game and denied any tipping tendencies.

“This has nothing to do with tipping,” McCullers told reporters. “Clearly they had a good game plan against me, and they executed better than I did.”

The first instance was Charlie Root allowing two apiece to Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in Game 3 of the 1932 World Series at Wrigley Field in a notable game where Ruth may or may not have called one of his homers as possible retribution for bench jockeying. Then it happened when Cincinnati’s Gene Thompson served up homers

Overall there are 130 instances of a pitcher allowing five homers in any game and it actually happened eight times during the regular season with the most notable instance being Gerrit Cole on June 9 in Minnesota when he allowed five in 2 1/3 innings as part of a season where he led the American League with 33 homers allowed.

Other notable names to join the five homers allowed club include David Price, whose struggles against the Yankees included the night of July 1, 2018 when he allowed two homers to Aaron Hicks, who slugged 27 in that season and wound up with an ill-fated contract extension in Feb. 2019.

Even Zack Greinke allowed five homers when he served them up in 4 2/3 innings at Los Angeles for Arizona on Sept. 5, 2016. Josh Beckett owns a resume that includes a shutout in Game 6 of the 2003 World Series for the Marlins and a five-homer game which he achieved April 7, 2012 in Detroit at the start of the forgettable Bobby Valentine era in Boston and that came nearly three years after he did so Aug. 23, 2009 at Fenway against the Yankees.

Overall teams are 21-109 when a pitcher allows five homers with Cole being the most recent to pitch in a win. Notable names to get wins when allowing five homers, include Mike Mussina who happened to do so in a 14-7 Orioles’ win over the Angels on July 1, 1994 and Ralph Branca, whose five-homer day occurred in a complete game when the Dodgers beat the Pirates 17-10 (nice football score) on June 25, 1949.

Of course, if the Astros win the World Series and if they achieve it with McCullers pitching well in Game 7 in Houston, the five homers will be a trivia answer.