Astros' Lance McCullers Jr., family get death threats in loss

Houston Astros, Lance McCullers Jr., said that he and his family were the subjects of murder threats on social media after he had suffered seven runs for the Cincinnati Reds on Saturday evening.

A team spokesman said the Astros informed both the Houston police department and the security of the Major League baseball about the threats.

“I understand that people are very passionate and love people who love astros and love sports, but it is a bit difficult to find my children and murder them,” McCullers told reporters in Houston.

“Over the years, there have usually been a lot of threats to me … but I think to bring children into the equation and threaten to find them … it's hard.”

McCullers (0: 1) only made his second start since game 3 of the 2022 World Series after fighting a number of spending on the right arm. As an all-star in 2018, he spent all eight of his big league season in Houston.

“It is very unfortunate that we have to deal with it,” said Astros manager Joe Espada that he should open his press conference after the game. “After all, he did for this city, for this team. The fact that we have to talk about it in my office. I also have children. It really drives me crazy that we have to deal with it. Very sad. Very, very sad.

“Listen, he has not set up in two and a half years … … it will take a bit of time to get it up to run. And that's okay. But that can't happen. I am really upset that this can happen to the athletes.”

McCullers fought his command from the start on Saturday. He went the Leadoff Schlagmann Tj Friedl before falling Matt McLain onto the back. Elly de la Cruz then hit the left a Homer from counterfeen to make it 3-0.

McCullers went out two more batteries with one before Tyler Stephenson scored an RBI single. Will Benson followed with an RBI double to do it 5-0 and chase McCullers.

He was replaced by Logan Vanwey, but the red stacked and sent 15 batteries to the plate before Santiago Espinal finally struck to end the inning.

There were most of the runs in a first inning since August 1989, when they achieved 14, also against the Astros.

The Reds won the game on Saturday with 13: 9 when Houston lost in the last six games for the fourth time.

In this report, information from the Associated Press was used.