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 @PitcherList and we’ll GIF it up + give you a shoutout here in the article.
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Blake Treinen’s Slider – The king stay the king. The A’s closer may be the most GIFable pitcher around—and he just keeps racking up strikeout victims with both his sinker and slider. Here, Jose Fernandez couldn’t touch the latter as Treinen struck out the side in the ninth on his way to his 30th save. For further evidence of his filthiness, check out Ben Palmer’s tribute to Treinen’s day.
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Noah Syndergaard’s Sinker – Not to be outdone, the Norse God of GIFs tore the Marlins to shreds with his darting sinker. Just check out this borderline-unethical fastball that catches to corner at 99 mph and leaves Miguel Rojas grumbling to the ump.
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Chris Sale’s Slider – Shoulder inflammation? What shoulder inflammation? The Red Sox would probably like to pretend Sale’s most recent trip to the DL didn’t happen, and their ace made it easy to do that Sunday as he hit 99 mph with his fastball several times early and came toting the unfair scythe that is his slider. Chris Davis, who has had…uh…a rough year, caught the business end of the latter as he waved weakly to become one of Sale’s 12 strikeouts over just five innings.
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Jordan Hicks‘ Sinker – Alex Gordon’s surprise gave way to respect as he gave the nod to the Cardinals rookie’s 100 mph fastball after he was rung up. Hicks’ heat may be commonplace at this point in the season, but it’s still a thing of beauty when he can pin the tale on the donkey like he did here.
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Adam Ottavino’s Slider – If baseball pitches were subreddits, Ottavino’s signature out pitch would be r/oddly satisfying, because its lab-grown elegance almost never fails to weave its way through one of his appearances and leave everyone grinning with contentment. That is—unless you’re facing him, like the Dodgers’ Chris Taylor.
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Carlos Carrasco’s Changeup – The Indians right-hander abused the White Sox over seven innings for nine K’s, and Nicky Delmonico added to Carrasco’s 16 whiffs by waving at this diving off-speed pitch.
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Luis Garcia’s Two-Seamer – Garcia came rocking a filthy slider and this sonic sinker against the Padres, getting loose for seven swinging strikes on 21 pitches while striking out the side in his lone inning.
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Jake Junis’ Slider – This may not be the silliest Junis’ go-to breaking pitch gets, but the movement on this slider to St. Louis’ Marcell Ozuna is still pretty outlandish. The 25-year-old rode 32 CSW (33.3 %) to eight K’s in six innings.
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.
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