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 First 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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Jordan Hicks‘ Two-Seamer – Sure, everyone knows by now Hicks has wrestled the Statcast leaderboard from Aroldis Chapman and slapped him upside the head with it, but that doesn’t make 103 mph any less impressive. And we don’t need to know that Hicks threw the five fastest pitches of 2018 before yesterday to get an idea of how hard the St. Louis reliever throws. We only have to look at Josh Bell’s Sunday at-bat against Hicks. The 21-year-old hurled eight pitches to the Pittsburgh first baseman, and he hit at least 101 on the gun seven times.
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Arodys Vizcaino’s Two-Seamer – The Braves closer was bringing fire of his own, as he caught the outside edge of the plate at 99 mph and a nasty tail against Washington’s Brian Goodwin. Though he came in with the game tied at 2-2, he snagged a win thanks to Charlie Culberson’s walk-off home run.
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Blake Treinen’s Sinker – Not to be outdone, Treinen touched 99 himself—but with the deadliest movement so far. There’s a reason the Pitching Ninja has dubbed him “The Witch,” and here’s a great example of it. The A’s closer dropped Kansas City’s Jorge Soler with this filth to wrap up Oakland’s 5-1 win.
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Jake Junis’ Slider – The 25-year-old righty was catching whiffs all day—18 overall and nine on his slider alone—burying this bending masterpiece below Jed Lowrie’s bat path to pick up a fifth-inning K. Junis finished with nine strikeouts in 7.1 innings.
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Mike Clevinger’s Slider – The biting English on this Clevinger slide piece left Minnesota’s Miguel Sano fanning the stands for the first of the slugger’s two K’s on the day.
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Tyson Ross‘ Slider – Ross toyed with Tucker Barnhart’s balance as the Cincinnati catcher couldn’t stay upright on this inside slider. The Padres starter skated by with just two earned runs despite giving up seven hits and striking out three over five innings.
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Luis Castillo’s Two-Seamer – Even though Castillo couldn’t put it all together over his 4.2 innings, the 25-year-old once again flashed his immense talent against the Padres. Here, he put 97 mph on the black against the Padres’ Jose Pirela.
GIF of the Night
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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rick porcello had some nasty backdoor sinkers that were somehow omitted from these gifs :(
Totally agree. His stuff was nasty. Don’t know why he didn’t make the list.