Clayton Kershaw’s Curveball + The Nastiest Pitches from Friday’s Game

Check out the best pitches from Game 1 of the NLCS, including offerings from Josh Hader and Jeremy Jeffress.

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 Playoffs 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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Clayton Kershaw’s Curveball 1 – Anytime you can make the potential National League MVP take a knee, you hit the highlight reels—even if you give up four runs in three innings on the playoff stage. This strikeout of Christian Yelich was probably the highlight of Kershaw’s night, though.

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Clayton Kershaw Curveball 2 – Despite the home run given up to pitcher Brandon Woodruff and his overall struggles, the Dodgers ace flashed his famous curveball in spots, as he got Mike Moustakas to whiff on this third-inning offering.

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Josh Hader’s Slider – At one point in the sixth, Hader induced five consecutive whiffs and extended that to six out of seven pitches. Max Muncy had the unfortunate distinction of suffering part of that run, as he waved at a pair of sliders and a changeup to go down swinging. Hader struck out four in three innings, giving up no runs.

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Jeremy Jeffress‘ Curveball – Jeffress had Yasiel Puig’s number as he got him swinging twice on three straight knuckle curves. This was the second whiff, and it ended the eighth inning to kill a rally with L.A. trailing by two.

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Corey Knebel’s Curveball – Cody Bellinger cuts a familiar form when swinging over the top of a breaking ball, but the outfielder switched it up here thanks to the freeze Knebel’s breaker put on him. The Brewers reliever gave up a run but struck out two in picking up the Game 1 save.

 

GIF of the Night

Which was your favorite pitch? Vote below and the winner will be featured in the GIF of the Playoffs Contest.

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Jason Dunbar

Jason has been a contributor at various places such as the Boston Globe and the Hardball Times and is an editor at Bleacher Report.

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