Every morning we review the nastiest pitches from the previous day’s games in glorious HD GIFs. Don’t forget to vote for your favorite pitch and check back this weekend to see if it will be in contention for the GIF of the First Half Contest. Did we miss your favorite pitch? Send us a tweet next time @PitcherList and we’ll GIF it up + give you a shoutout here in the article.
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Chris Sale’s Slider – The wiry lefty struck out 15 Blue Jays over nine innings and induced 16 whiffs on his slider alone (26 overall) Friday. Anthony Alford added to that tally and had trouble staying upright on this fourth-inning back-footer.
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Aaron Sanchez’s Two-Seamer – The 25-year-old Sanchez is known for his silly movement, and this cartoonish two-seamer to Boston’s Hanley Ramirez is a good example why. The Red Sox DH counted himself as one of Sanchez’s four strikeout victims on the night.
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Jake Arrieta’s Curveball – Arrieta didn’t have his best swing-and-miss stuff with only six whiffs total, but he dropped the hammer on the Mets’ Brandon Nimmo in the top of the fifth on this 0-1 pitch. He also threw a near-identical curve to strike out Adrian Gonzalez a few innings prior.
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Kendall Graveman’s Two-Seamer – The A’s starter blew this riding, 95 mph heater past New York’s Iron Giant as Aaron Judge went down swinging as part of his 17th multi-K showing of the year.
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Justin Verlander’s Curveball – The 35-year-old righty had Texas’ Adrian Beltre ducking phantoms on this fourth-inning breaking ball. This hook set things up nicely as Verlander struck out the Rangers third baseman swinging later in the at-bat.
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Hector Neris’ Splitter – Take a knee, Jose Reyes. Neris brought his signature out pitch to bear on the Mets shortstop for the second out of the ninth inning. If only he’d been able to set up the pitch in the rest of the frame, as he gave up solo shots to Michael Conforto (two-seamer) and new Mets catcher Devin Mesoraco (slider) on consecutive offerings for his third blown save of the year.
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Seunghwan Oh’s Changeup – The Korean righty may not have taken hold of the Blue Jays’ closer job after it recently opened up, but this dive-bombing changeup to Boston’s Sandy Leon was awfully filthy on a night when his team needed 12 innings to take down Sale and the Red Sox, 5-3.
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Kelvin Herrera’s Slider – Cleveland’s Edwin Encarnacion was stuck in a swing malfunction on this slide piece, as Herrera worked a 1-2-3 ninth to pick up his eighth save.
GIF of the Night
Which was your favorite pitch? Vote below and the winner will be featured in the GIF of the First Half Contest.
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