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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Lance McCullers’ Two-Seamer – The 24-year-old only picked up three strikeouts across 96 pitches in a 7-1 win, but his knuckle curve and fastball were diving and riding all over the place, as evidence by this two-seamer to the White Sox’s Leury Garcia.
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Blake Treinen’s Slider – The Oakland closer treated Boston’s hitters like children in ending Sunday’s 4-1 win with a 1.2-inning save. He featured an unfair 98 mph sinker to strike out Rafael Devers to start the ninth, and he finished the inning prior with this diving slider to first baseman Mitch Moreland.
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Joe Jimenez’s Fastball – Wait. Was that a trick of the light? Or was it the catcher’s glove dragging across the zone? Whatever it was, Jimenez’s 94 mph heat featured some serious movement to finish off Kansas City’s Jorge Soler. Now if the Tigers would just make saves speculators happy and name him the closer already.
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Jose Alvarado’s Two-Seamer – Hot damn this is fast becoming one of the most enjoyable pitches to watch in three-second loops. Minnesota’s Max Kepler didn’t know what to do as this 98 mph Higgs-Boson particle left him frozen mid-swing.
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Trevor Hildenberger’s Slider – Perhaps it was the arm slot the Twins righty threw out of. Maybe it was the trajectory that scraped the entirety of the zone’s bottom. Maybe a little from column A, a little from column B. Whatever the case, it caused Joey Wendle’s back leg to give up on life and cease to support the rest of the Tampa second baseman’s weight. Strike three, inning over.
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Chaz Roe’s Slider – If you’ve been following along, you know Roe’s slider has make him somewhat of a GIF superhero, earning him a regular spot on this list. Here, he chucked an easy slide piece that swept across the zone and left Brian Dozier bending his knees to check if he was still on level ground. This was the second of six sliders the second baseman saw in the at-bat, and he never did get a bead on it.
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Adam Ottavino’s Slider – If Roe’s becoming a GIF’ing hero, then Colorado’s Ottavino is becoming a nemesis of sorts—or vice versa, depending on your allegiances—what with his lab-grown slider making him a staple here as well. This time, Chicago’s Javier Baez was left hacking at air as Ottavino jogged off the mound to end the top of the ninth.
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Johnny Cueto’s Changeup – Shohei Ohtani has embarrassed his share of hitters this year with his offspeed stuff, but this time he caught the business end of Cueto’s string-pulling ways. The Giants right-hander rode his changeup to seven K’s, no earned runs, two walks and two hits in a 4-2 win over the Angels.
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Corey Kluber’s Slider – The Indians ace’s sinker had plenty of movement over his seven innings of three-run ball and could’ve easily made an appearance here. But this slider to Baltimore’s Tim Beckham was Sunday’s most Kluboting pitch from the man who looks ready to compete for another Cy Young.
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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This was one of the most difficult votes I’ve seen on here. So much filth thrown yesterday.
Agreed. Pure sorcery on so many of these.