Every morning, the We Love Baseball crew reviews the Nastiest Pitches from the previous day’s games in glorious high-definition GIFs. We want to bring you the highest caliber of nastiness possible, so if you see a nasty pitch, please tell us about it. You can tweet @PitcherList to let us know and we’ll give you a shout-out here in the article if your tip makes the cut.
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Clay Holmes‘ Sinker
https://gfycat.com/consciouspopularbeardeddragon
Last night’s Twins game was the very definition of That’s Baseball, Suzyn. The Twins banged out five home runs, off Gerrit Cole no less, and still found a way to lose. Here, the new Yankee closer fired a first-pitch sinker to Carlos Correa, who would go down looking for the final out. As for Holmes’ sinker, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better one. It’s held batters to a .189 wOBA while registering a 28.3% whiff rate.
James Norwood’s Splitter
https://gfycat.com/consciousfreefairybluebird
Who doesn’t love a good splitter? The game was decided at this point, but James Norwood flashed his nasty splitter to get a swing and miss from Jace Peterson in the ninth as the Phillies kept their winning streak going.
Shane McClanahan’s Fastball
https://gfycat.com/beautifulartisticgossamerwingedbutterfly
McClanahan had the fastball working in yesterday’s series finale against the Cardinals. The heater returned 11 swings and misses on 29 swings, good for a 38% whiff rate. Here he gets Harrison Bader to swing through a perfectly located 98-mile-per-hour fastball at the top of the zone to end the second.
Dylan Cease’s Slider
https://gfycat.com/jubilantenchantingbirdofparadise
Before everything fell apart in the fifth, Cease was under control. His slider was terrific yesterday and returned a dazzling 54% whiff rate. Here he snaps off a sharp breaker to put down Will Smith in his first at-bat.
Max Fried’s Curveball
https://gfycat.com/venerateddifficulthyrax
The hot swinging rookie, Jack Suwinski belted his eighth last night off Fried in his second at-bat of the night. But Atlanta’s southpaw exacted revenge in their next meeting which ended in this whiff on a nasty bender.
Shohei Ohtani’s Splitter
https://gfycat.com/lankytotalhawaiianmonkseal
Hallelujah, the losing streak is finally over. The Angels needed a two-way performance from last year’s MVP and he delivered. In the first, he snapped off a soul-stealing splitter to make Rafael Devers look flat-out silly.
Nick Pivetta’s Knuckle Curve
https://gfycat.com/enlightenedbeautifulannelida
But the win wasn’t easy for the Angels as Pivetta and Ohtani traded zeroes through the first four frames. Here Pivetta freezes Jared Walsh on a beautiful nose to toes breaker to end the first. He ended the night with 11 K’s, two shy of his career-high of 13 in a start against the Cardinals back on June 18th, 2018.
Corbin Burnes‘ Cutter
https://gfycat.com/lightsharpgalapagossealion
This was an odd game. Burnes ended up with eight strikeouts but four walks ruined his overall line as he needed 113 pitches to collect 13 outs. On the other side, Zach Eflin, who also uncharacteristically struggled with his control, managed to get through just four innings. Here a back-door cutter from Burnes retires Bryce Harper to get him out of the first. The cutter did yeoman’s work yesterday and returned a 37% CSW on 60 thrown.
Shohei Ohtani’s Curveball
https://gfycat.com/dimconfusedkakarikis
Another from the hero the Angels needed last night. It’s not enough that he can throw a 100 and hit home runs. He can also drop in a slow hook with the best of them. Poor Jonathan Araúz.
Miles Mikolas‘ Slider
https://gfycat.com/jollycarefreekingsnake
Ji-Man Choi struck for what ended up being the game-winner, a two-run shot in the fourth, but Mikolas got a little revenge in the seventh and made him bend the knee for his ninth and final punchout of the day.
Featured image by Justin Paradis (@JustParaDesigns of Twitter)