Stephen Strasburg’s Changeup + The Nastiest Pitching GIFs From This Weekend’s Playoff Games

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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Stephen Strasburg’s Changeup – Despite taking the Loss on Friday, Strasburg’s stuff was downright filthy, showing off gorgeous secondary pitches through the game. When his Changeup is working, it’s one of the prettiest pitches in the game and while multiple could have earned a spot today, we felt this fading slow ball to Kyle Shwarber was most deserving.

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Stephen Strasburg’s Curveball – Alright, we couldn’t resist featuring Strasburg a second time as we got an excellent shot of Strasburg’s fantastic hook, here fanning slugger Anthony Rizzo with the filthy bender. Straight up nasty.

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Lance McCullers Jr.’s Fastball – McCullers did a great job for the Astros out of the pen on Sunday, covering for Brad Peacock after an early exit. We didn’t get a good view of his signature Curveball, but his Fastball had plenty of ride, here curling back to the plate to nip the inside corner at 94mph.

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Carlos Carrasco’s Changeups – It was a fantastic pitchers duel between Carrasco and Tanaka Sunday evening, with Carrasco turning to his Changeup and Slider to get the job done. Here, he fanned Game 3 hero Greg Bird with three Changeups that got filthier the deeper he went into the at-bat.

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David Robertson’s Curveball – While Robertson eventually allowed the game-tying HR to Jay Bruce, his deuce has been doing great work for the Yankees. Here he got an awkward swing from Jose Ramirez on a Curveball with a massive amount of depth.

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Corey Kluber’s Slider – It wasn’t Kluber’s day in Cleveland, but he still showed off elite repertoire that has made him a near lock for the AL Cy Young. Take this Slider for example, which fell out of the zone in a hurry to Jacoby Ellsbury for an early strikeout.

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Masahiro Tanaka’s Splitter – Tanaka pitched one of the best games of his career against the Indians, fanning seven in as many frames of scoreless ball. His Splitter was as good as we’ve ever seen it, diving just under the strikezone at the last moment at 90mph. There’s a reason the pitch is “world famous.”

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Carl Edwards Jr.’s Curveball – Edwards Jr. has been a stud for the Cubs out of the pen all season and his Curveball is a big reason why. Check out its excellent drop as he fanned Trea Turner with the pitch on Friday evening.

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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