Was it nothing? Bohm reveals untold story from World Series HR

CLEARWATER, Fla. — Alec Bohm wasn’t kidding.

Bryce Harper really advised him nothing earlier than he homered in opposition to Lance McCullers Jr. in Game 3 of the World Series. It has been one of many few untold tales from the Phillies’ 2022 postseason run. You keep in mind. Before Bohm stepped into the batter’s field to face McCullers within the backside of the second inning at Citizens Bank Park, Harper and Phillies hitting coach Kevin Long referred to as Bohm again to the dugout. Bohm leaned in. Harper coated his mouth as he spoke. Bohm nodded repeatedly.

Bohm stepped again into the batter’s field and crushed a first-pitch sinker for a house run. The Phillies gained, 7-0.

Afterward, all people puzzled what Harper mentioned.

“Nothing,” Bohm mentioned then, smiling.

“Any time you have information you want to give that to your teammates,” Harper mentioned, enjoying alongside.

OK, so now that greater than three months have handed, what was mentioned?

“Nothing,” Bohm mentioned Monday afternoon at BayCare Ballpark.

“Nothing,” Bohm repeated. “We were just messing with him.”

“Bryce didn’t say anything,” Bohm mentioned. “I just happened to hit a homer. [Harper and Long] were yelling at me for a while. I came over and Bryce said, ‘Just stand here for a second.’ The Astros are pretty thorough, so we just gave them something to think about. It was just a little gamesmanship, a little chess match. Obviously, we won that game, but lost the series, so …”

Bohm defined what occurred within the at-bat.

“To be honest with you, we faced [McCullers] at the very end of the season,” Bohm mentioned. “I thought I knew what pitch I was getting first-pitch from him for two weeks. I was taking a chance. I know this guy throws [less than] 80 percent [offspeed], but I think he’s going to throw me a first-pitch sinker. He threw a sinker. You would have thought that we knew he was tipping [his pitches] because who goes up and ambushes a sinker on McCullers? I kept telling Kevin, he’s throwing me a sinker. Slider, slider, slider, but I hit that pitch well. He’s throwing me a sinker. And that’s what he did. I sat slider the whole time we faced him in the regular season. It didn’t work well.”

Bohm confronted McCullers twice on Oct. 3, when the Phillies clinched a National League Wild Card spot. McCullers threw Bohm a first-pitch sinker in his first at-bat. He threw him a first-pitch changeup in his second.

He noticed 4 pitches: two sinkers, two changeups.

“The whole time [before Game 3] I just had this feeling that he’s throwing me a sinker,” Bohm mentioned. “And if it’s a strike, I’m not missing it.”

McCullers threw a first-pitch sinker 34.2 p.c of the time final yr, together with the postseason. That’s really greater than another pitch. Against right-handed batters, McCullers threw a first-pitch sinker 56 p.c of the time. Five of the 9 homers McCullers allowed final season, together with the postseason, occurred in opposition to sinkers. Three got here on the primary pitch, together with Kyle Schwarber’s homer on Oct. 3.

So perhaps it was greater than only a feeling, too.

Afterward, the Astros insisted that McCullers didn’t tip his pitches. They mentioned the Phillies simply clobbered dangerous ones.

“If you look at the homers, they were middle balls,” Bohm mentioned. “If he was tipping pitches, we didn’t know. I feel like those guys will play games with you. They’ll show you something different to make you think they’re doing something.”

So the Phillies returned the favor.

“It’s not like we have anything,” Bohm mentioned. “So we’re not saving anything for next time.”