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.
Congrats to Lance McCullers’ Changeup for winning Nastiest Pitching GIF of the Week! Despite not pitching well consistently, McCullers’ Changeup was absolutely filthy against the Orioles.
Jacob deGrom’s Changeup – deGrom had yet another double digit strikeout game against the Mariners and was able to escape the second inning without too much damage. He had some help from his slow ball, which moved a ton in on the hands of Mike Zunino for the strikeout.
Zack Greinke’s Repertoire – We’ve been adding a few more combined GIFs lately, though this Greinke GIF is a first. He fanned batters with four different pitches during Saturday’s affair, each well deserving of a spotlight as his Fastball painted the corner, Changeup brought Kolten Wong to a knee, Curveball fell from the sky for the backwards K, and his Slider curled back elegantly to nip the outside corner. There are very few pitchers in the league that can command like Greinke.
Brad Peacock’s Slider – Despite being demoted to the bullpen, Peacock put on a show during his long relief of four innings on Friday. He closed the sixth innings for the books with a great Slider to Nick Castellanos that the slugger didn’t come close to touching.
Trevor Rosenthal’s Changeup – Rosenthal was called on a bit early in the eighth, but was electric as he saved the game for the Cardinals. Despite throwing triple digits, his best pitch was with a sub 90mph Changeup that featured gorgeous fade to earn the whiff.
Corey Kluber’s Fastball + Slider – Once again, Kluber lit up the scoreboard with 12 strikeouts and many of his pitches could easily have found their way into our roundup. These two in particular stuck out, with a textbook front-door Fastball and a wiffle ball Slider that no one can resist.
Drew Pomeranz’s Curveball – If there is one pitch that we adore from The Dirty Cheerleader, it’s his deuce, which fell into the dirt in a hurry against Salvador Perez in the sixth frame. Notice how this pitch started thigh high before diving out of the zone in a blink of an eye.
Jacob Faria’s Changeup – There are some walk problems to iron out, but Faria still has some nasty stuff when he’s trying to put you away. Todd Frazier was one of Faria’s eight victims on Saturday, swinging well out in front against this wicked 80mph Changeup.
Gerrit Cole’s Slider – Cole has been on a tear in his last five games and looked marvelous debilitating that Padres in San Diego. He his second out of the second frame with this fantastic Slider to Austin Hedges that bent off the plate with vicious bite.
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=9799677]