PHILADELPHIA — If timing is everything, then Bryce Harper is all things.
Harper hit a home run on the first pitch he saw as a Phillie playing in a World Series at Citizens Bank Park. He did it in the first World Series game at the Bank in 13 years, which the Phillies won, 7-0.
Harper’s cannon shot unleashed a five-homer barrage from five Phillies — Harper, then Alec Bohm, Brandon Marsh, Kyle Schwarber, and Rhys Hoskins — that finally chased Astros starter Lance McCullers Jr. from Game 3 of the World Series in a seven-run hole with one out in the fifth inning, his ears ringing. If McCullers’ hearing wasn’t impaired by the cracks of the bats, then it was diminished by the jet-engine roars from the 45,712 that accompanied them.
