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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Stephen Strasburg’s Changeup – It’s beautiful enough when a righty has the guts to throw a changeup inside to another righty. But when it comes with this kind of drop? You get one of the sport’s best offerings. Colorado’s Chris Iannetta could do nothing but take the L here.
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Noah Syndergaard’s Changeup – Thor was practicing the dark arts Sunday at Citi Field, picking up 25 whiffs and 11 K’s in 5.1 innings—at one point striking out eight batters in a row. This 0-2 offspeed pitch to Milwaukee’s Travis Shaw made the chilly Queens weather seem that much colder in the Brewers dugout.
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Adam Ottavino’s Slider – If you ever want to win your local science fair, hit up Ottavino for a live demonstration of how planetary orbits work, because his slider is clearly following the gravitational pull of some unseen celestial body floating over home plate. It’s the only explanation—just ask Washington’s Michael A. Taylor if he has a better one.
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Chris Sale’s Slider – Ho-hum. Sale’s fatal flying guillotine claims another victim. This one left Baltimore’s Adam Jones hacking at air and painted a good picture of how nasty the Boston lefty was at Fenway Park as he picked up eight strikeouts in five innings on a season-high 93 pitches.
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Clayton Kershaw’s Curveball – Kershaw was dominant over 100 pitches with 12 strikeouts and no walks. He only threw his signature hook 14% of the time, but the Diamondbacks couldn’t do anything with it when it did appear in a 7-2 loss.
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Sean Manaea’s Slider – Manaea is looking like Oakland’s ace, and this sweeping slider to Seattle’s Guillermo Heredia is a good example of what’s pushing him to that status. The lefty outdueled Felix Hernandez with four K’s, two walks and one run over seven innings in a 2-1 win. (Thanks to @fgervasi for the tip!)
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Bartolo Colon’s Two-Seamer – Known as the Grown Ranger around here, Colon was perfect through seven frames before walking Carlos Correa to start the eighth. He jumped out to an auspicious start when he got Houston’s Jose Altuve looking to end the first inning on this bendy fastball. (Shout out to Redditor cjn13 for alerting us!)
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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My only regret is that I have but one vote to give.