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 and check back this weekend to see if it will be in contention for the GIF of the First Half. 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.
Congrats to Steven Wright’s Knuckleball for winning GIF of the Week! The pitch had a mind of its own to Chris Davis and was the easy winner of the week.
R.A. Dickey’s Knuckleball – Not to be out beat by the only other knuckleballer in the league, Dickey elected to display his talents on Wright’s home turf, and gave us this unreal pitch to Blake Swihart, whose bat said “that’s it, I’m out of here” after a big whiff. (Thanks to @michaeldryden and about ten Redditors for the tip!)
Jason Hammel’s Curveball – After Hammel’s successful Saturday afternoon against the Diamondbacks, the Cubs start sports a sparkling 2.14 ERA. He cruised through Arizona’s lineup, including making Welington Castillo take a seat with this excellent Curveball. (Thanks to Redditor Gyro88 for the tip!)
Jake Arrieta’s Fastball – There are always a plethora of pitches to choose from whenever Arrieta pitches, and his Fastball movement has been spectacular in his last few starts. It’s hard not to love this 94 mph heater’s late movement across the plate to avoid Chris Herrmann’s bat.
Noe Ramirez’s Curveball – Ramirez will most likely not have many other appearances on this list, but he had a great moment getting Darwin Barney to bail on this 0-0 Curveball that fell in for a strike. (Thanks to Redditor GuadalupeChavezMVP for the tip!)
Danny Salazar’s Changeup – It was a night where it all clicked for Salazar on Friday, with all of his pitches working in his favor. For example, watch the amount of tumbling action he got on this Split-Change as it dips well below Drew Butera’s bat.
Jon Gray’s Slider – Gray was on fire once again as he met the Padres in Petco for the second time this season. His Slider was his weapon of choice and helped him earn 12 Ks through the evening. Check out its fantastic bite on this pitch to Brett Wallace.
David Price’s Cutter – It’s pitches like these that turn a good pitcher into a great one. Price loves his backdoor Cutter, and placed it perfectly on the outside corner to send Devon Travis back to the dugout.
Hisashi Iwakuma’s Splitter – It was one of the best starts of the year from Iwakuma, allowing just 1 ER and collecting seven Ks as he ran through the Rangers’ lineup. His Splitter was on point, just watch it fall well out of the zone to Jared Hoying for the punch out.
Jose Fernandez’s Curveball – JoFer had himself a day as he struck out 14 Mets hitters, elevating his K/9 well past the 13.00 mark. He did most of his damage with his unreal breaking ball, and this bender to Neil Walker was the best of the lot.
GIF Of The Weekend
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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