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 Second Half Contest. Did we miss your favorite pitch? Send us a tweet next time @ThePitcherList and we’ll GIF it up + give you a shoutout here in the article.
Jeremy Hellickson’s Curveball – I still haven’t heard a rational explanation for why the Orioles traded for a rental starter like Hellickson, but in his first outing for his new team Hellickson was stellar. Hellickson has always had good command and here he buries his tumbling Curveball down in the zone to get Alex Gordon swinging. The late drop here is fun to watch.
Jake Arrieta’s Cutter – Arrieta is noteworthy for the Slider like movement he gets on his Cutter. His breaking ball is only about 4.5 MPH faster on average than his Fastball, but he gets such ridiculous horizontal movement on it. J.D. Martinez swings hard, but doesn’t come close to making contact. (Thanks to twitter follower @ConnorWatrous for the tip!)
Dellin Betances‘ Curveball – Betances threw 9 strikes and got 3 Ks for a rare immaculate inning last night. When he’s throwing both of his pitches for strikes there’s not much hitters can do. For his first K, Betances throws his patented hard Curveball and Jim Adduci sees a Fastball in his happy zone before the ball dives at the ground. Sick pitch.
Luis Perdomo’s Fastball – Perdomo gets great movement on this front door Fastball, and at 97 MPH, Jason Castro has little time before the ball is hitting the inside black. Perfect placement.
Masahiro Tanaka’s Splitter – Tanaka got the tough luck loss last night allowing only two runs, and avoiding the long ball, which has been his achilles heel throughout his career. In the first, Tanaka threw a hard Splitter at 92 MPH with his signature late movement, and Miguel Cabrera can only get a slight piece of the pitch before Gary Sanchez squeezes onto the ball for the K.
Austin Pruitt’s Curveball – Pruitt pitched well last night for the Rays who have assembled a team of little known players that is still in wildcard contention. Here Pruitt uses a sharp Curveball to get Carlos Beltran swinging.
GIF Of The Night
Which was your favorite pitch? Vote below and the winner will be featured in the GIF of the Second Half Contest.
[polldaddy poll=9802048]