"Without a Doubt" - Pedro Martinez Says Lance McCullers Jr. was Indeed Tipping Pitches
So the big story on Action News was the exchange that Bryce Harper had with Alec Bohm prior to the latter’s home run. Harper was seen whispering something to Bohm, who immediately went yard, making people wonder if Lance McCullers Jr. was tipping his pitches:
Bryce Harper called Alec Bohm back before his at-bat to tell him something.
Bohm hit the first pitch he saw out of the park. #WorldSeries pic.twitter.com/bep547w2KL
— MLB (@MLB) November 2, 2022
Both guys downplayed the exchange after the game, obviously. They weren’t going to go public with the deciphered tell, if that’s what indeed happened here.
There’s been dispute about this on Twitter and in written articles from good scribes, but for what it’s worth, McCullers claimed that he just got his ass kicked (via Alden Gonzalez at ESPN):
“I got whupped,” he said. “End of story.”
McCullers got beat in a way no man ever has this time of year. He gave up five home runs, the most ever allowed by a single pitcher in a single postseason outing, and made it a point to dismiss any excuses in the aftermath of the Houston Astros‘ 7-0 defeat to the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 3 of the World Series.
“We got beat up pretty bad, and I got beat pretty bad,” McCullers said. “I obviously wanted to pitch well, and pitch much better than I did, but at the end of the day, all I can do at this point is get ready to go for a potential Game 7.”
Of course, McCullers wouldn’t say anything either. He’s not going to admit to any kind of pitch tipping. What would you expect him to say? “Yeah, my mechanics are different when I throw a curveball.” Go through the video though and there’s some really interesting stuff. I thought this was the best clip going around:
“I was surprised it was that drastic”
-Hall of Famer Pedro Martinez on @MLBNetwork says Lance McCullers was tipping pitches. He says his glove was way up high, almost over his head for offspeed and was much lower for fastballs
— John Clark (@JClarkNBCS) November 2, 2022
I’m not a baseball expert, and we’ll leave that to Bob and Anthony (who will write something more about this later), but regardless of whether or not this guy was tipping, he was leaving meatballs right over the plate. They were not good pitches. It’s not like the Phillies were taking him deep off 100 mph nastiness, you know what I mean? Either way, give the Phils a ton of credit. If they didn’t figure out a tell, then the story is that they studied McCullers and knew what to expect. They did their homework regardless.
