CNN
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Philadelphia had waited 4,746 days to host a World Series game and was forced to wait another day when Monday night’s game was postponed due to rain.
But his patience was rewarded on Tuesday as the Philadelphia Phillies took a 2-1 World Series lead, using the long ball to fight their way to a 7-0 win over the Houston Astros in Game 3. .
All those thousands of days of anticipation were then unleashed in a beer-soaked Citizens Bank Park as the crowd of 45,712 waved red scarves and cheered their side off the pitch, who are now 6-0 at home in the playoffs.
“It’s our fan base. Plain and simple,” Phillies right fielder Bryce Harper told reporters after the game. “They move us forward. Keep us lit. We were able to go out on the pitch today. They were all here ready to go and they believe in us and we believe in them. So that was great.
Prior to the start of the series, the Phillies had been touted as the brave underdog after entering the National League playoffs as the lowest seeded of the six teams while the Astros were playoff undefeated as as the No. 1 seed, sweeping the Seattle Mariners and New York Yankees.
But it was the Phillies who proved the more dominant of the two teams on Tuesday, hitting five home runs against Astros starter Lance McCullers Jr., who was struck out in the fifth inning, accounting for all seven runs.
McCullers Jr.’s five homers were the most allowed in a single-player game in playoff history.
“It was pretty mind-blowing because he’s not giving up home runs,” Astros coach Dusty Baker said afterwards.
“He usually keeps the ball in the stadium. He wasn’t satisfied with it. We were very surprised.
“When it’s 4-0 at this stadium, you don’t want to go through your entire pitching staff because 4-0 at this stadium 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.
With their five home runs, the Phillies set a team record for a postseason game, tied the World Series single-game record, and became the first team in World Series history to score five home runs. in the first five innings.
They also threw a World Series shutout for only the second time in franchise history, and the first since 1993, when starter Ranger Suarez threw five shutout innings, allowing just three hits and one. walking.
Harper opened the Phillies’ account late in the first when he hit a two-run shot from 402 feet into right center field on the first pitch he saw, for his sixth home run of the playoffs.
Then Alec Bohm, who hit the 1,000th home run in World Series history, and Brandon Marsh added their own homers in the second to give the Phillies a 4-0 lead.
Two more homers in the fifth from Kyle Schwarber — a 443-foot two-run shot through center field — and Rhys Hoskins completed the Phillies’ historic innings.
Game 4 of the best-of-seven series is Wednesday night in Philadelphia.
