HOUSTON (AP) — Houston pitcher Lance McCullers Jr. said he received online death threats directed at his children after his tough start Saturday night against the Cincinnati Reds.

McCullers, who was making just his second start since Game 3 of the 2022 World Series, allowed seven runs while getting just one out in Houston’s 13-9 loss.

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Afterward, McCullers said he had received the threats on social media.

“I understand people are very passionate and people love the Astros and love sports, but threatening to find my kids and murder them is a little bit tough to deal with,” he said. “So just as a father I think there have been many, many threats over the years aimed at me mostly, and I think actually one or two people from other issues around baseball actually had to go to jail for things like that. But I think bringing kids into the equation, threatening to find them or next time they see us in public, they’re gonna stab my kids to death, things like that, it’s tough to hear as a dad.”

The Astros said that the Houston Police Department and MLB security had been alerted to the threats.

McCullers and his wife Kara have two young daughters.

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A visibly upset manager Joe Espada addressed the threats at his postgame news conference and added that they were also threatening the pitcher’s life.

“There are people who are threatening his life and the life of his kids because of his performance,” Espada said. “It is very unfortunate that we have to deal with this. After all he’s done for this city, for his team, the fact that we have to talk about that in my office — I got kids too and it really drives me nuts that we have to deal with this. Very sad, very, very sad.”

McCullers, who has had numerous injuries that have kept him off the field in the last couple of seasons, said it’s difficult to have to deal with threats on top of trying to return to form on the mound.

“If you fail you fail on a very large stage (with) a lot of eyes and there’s nowhere to hide,” he said. “At the end of the day, I just want to do my job. I just want to be a good pitcher for the Astros and I believe I’ll get there, but like I said I just think that having to worry about that, worry about leaving town and leaving them and things like that or dropping her off at school, I just think … there should be some type of decency.”

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB