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.
Miguel Castro’s Fastball – Castro is rail thin and striking out less than batters per 9 innings this year, but it’s hard to understand how he misses so few bats when you look at this GIF. Castro gets his Fastball up to 98 MPH to Mikie Mahtook with some ridiculous horizontal movement. The slomo gives a great look at the sideways spin Castro gets on his Fastball.
Corey Kluber’s Slider – Another Kluber start, and another 11 Ks. It feels like clockwork every 5 days at this point with Kluber’s stellar run. Here he uses a Slider against Clint Frazier that starts on the outside black and falls way off the plate with some serious frisbee like movement.
Zack Greinke’s Curveball – The long ball really hurt Greinke last night, but he still had a few GIF-able flashes. Here he uses a 12-6 Curveball to get Ian Happ to swing through violently.
Sergio Romo’s Slider – Romo is anothr vagabond arm who has made his way to Tampa Bay, and he’s had a good start to his career in St. Petersburg. This Slider seems to come from right field before it breaks right onto the outside black. AJ Reed was left frozen.
Chad Kuhl’s Slider – Kuhl has a huge platoon split problem, and his hard Slider may find a better home in the bullpen eventually, but for now he’s done well limiting homers and missing bats. This hard Slider is so good even the lefty Scooter Gennett can’t touch. If you look closely, Gennett drops his bat in disgust because he was trying to call timeout before the pitch was delivered.
Matt Boyd’s Changeup – This is one of the tamer pitches you’ll see on GIFs of the Night, but the swing from Manny Machado is too good to pass up. Boyd throws a Changeup with great arm action, but no distinct movement, that Manny swings under, and he misses so forcefully that he ends up staring at the sky. Hopefully Manny can laugh this one off and turn around his unlucky year.
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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