Through the playoffs, we’ll be featuring 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 after each round 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.
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Jake Arrieta’s Fastball – Arrieta battled against the Nations and showed off his Cy Young stuff through the outing. Our favorite offering was this Fastball that bore into Michael Taylor out of nowhere, earning a whiff on an understandable check swing.
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Stephen Strasburg’s Changeups – Strasburg simply dominated against the Cubs, fanning 12 while the Nats were on the verge of elimination. He displayed one of his underrated skills – his ability to change the movement on his Changeup – to Kris Bryant, fanning the former MVP with two different Changeups: one that had exaggerated lateral movement and one that fell off the table.
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Aroldis Chapman’s Slider – We often focus on the brute strength of Chapman’s Fastball, but having a Slider that disappears in a blink of an eye makes him one of the more dominant relievers around.
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Aroldis Chapman’s Fastball – But there is that elite velocity and this 102mph heat to Jason Kipnis had an extra hint of a tail to dart away from the plate at the last moment. Unreal.
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Wade Davis‘ Cutter – While many will focus on his final pitch of the game to Bryce Harper, the pitch that wowed us from Davis was this Cutter that darted out of the zone against Ryan Zimmerman in a huge situation. It’s nearly impossible to lay off.
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Andrew Miller’s Slider – Miller came in to put out the fire against the Yankees and he did just that, using his famous Slider to quiet the New York bats. His best bender came against Aaron Judge, fanning the slugger with a slide piece that bent across the entire zone.
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Kyle Hendricks‘ Fastball – After allowing a horrific 3-Run HR, Hendricks got on track with one of his best pitches of the year. Just check out how much movement this 87mph Sinker got as the ball snuck under Gio Gonzalez’s bat.
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Bryan Shaw’s Cutter – Shaw did his part to prevent the Yankees from running away with the game, especially when throwing Cutters with this much life. Todd Frazier didn’t have a chance as the ball started inside the zone before heading to the dirt at a blistering 98mph.
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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