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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Aaron Nola’s Knuckle Curve
https://gfycat.com/leanlimpliger
The best of times and the worst of times for Nola. His previous start was a complete game shutout against the Reds and then last night’s mess; a career-worst eight earned runs while tying his career mark in hits allowed with ten. One bright spot at least was this nasty breaker against Corbin Carroll in the rookie’s third at-bat of the night.
Lucas Giolito’s Changeup
https://gfycat.com/everysecretdragonfly
It was another disappointing line for Giolito as he continues to be victimized by the longball; Nick Pratto tagged him twice and Salvador Perez got him too on a fastball that looked about a foot off the plate. The strikeouts were there at least, including this one of Bobby Witt Jr. on a nicely located change down in the zone.
Andrew Heaney’s Slider
https://gfycat.com/complexindeliblelark
Heaney snapped off this beautiful, back-foot slider to Francisco Lindor in the first. The southpaw really had his heater working too as it returned a whopping 16 whiffs on 32 swings. On that note, Pete Alonso might want to have his eyeballs checked after last night as he swung on missed eight times on Heaney’s fastball.
Emmanuel Clase’s Cutter
https://gfycat.com/orangeimpossiblegoldfinch
More brilliance from the Guardians’ closer as he converted save number 30 last night against the O’s. Give some credit to Ramón Urías though, after he fell into an 0-2 hole on this cutter, he battled and made Clase work before flying out on the tenth pitch of the at-bat.
Kevin Gausman’s Splitter
https://gfycat.com/plumpsilverflies
Gausman picked up win number ten last night. His splitter was up to its usual shenanigans as it returned a 29% CSW. His eighth punchout of the night came on this splitter to Nelson Velázquez in the fifth.
Pete Fairbanks‘ Fastball
https://gfycat.com/hatefulniftyjuliabutterfly
The man who doesn’t blink has been all sorts of nasty for the Rays; in 15 appearances, he has allowed just three earned runs, and his heater, which averages 99 on the nose, has registered a 37.0% whiff rate.
Mitch Keller’s Curveball
https://gfycat.com/dangerousbittergrasshopper
While the Pirates were killing (Fielding) Independent George, Mitch Keller racked up a career-high ten punchouts. The second of the night came on this foul tip from Willy Adames.
Framber Valdez’s Curveball
https://gfycat.com/yearlyofficialkodiakbear
Mark Mathias is probably glad to not have to deal with Framber Valdez and his curveball again after last night’s hat trick. Meanwhile, the southpaw did it again as his unbelievable run of consecutive quality starts continued last night with number 22. He’s in rarefied air now; Jacob deGrom, Bob Gibson, and Chris Carpenter are the only other pitchers in history to have done that.
Jonathan Loáisiga’s Curveball
https://gfycat.com/scarydigitalalabamamapturtle
Loáisiga has now rattled after four straight scoreless appearances and it couldn’t come at a better time for the Yankees as their bullpen has struggled to stay afloat with injuries to Scott Effross and Clay Holmes, who returned this past Monday. After taking two 99 MPH sinkers for strikes, David Fletcher, the man who would own the lowest K rate in baseball at 6.8% if he qualified, whiffed on this sharp hook out of the zone.
Logan Webb’s Changeup
https://gfycat.com/spiritedcooperativefoxterrier
Last night featured a close pitcher’s duel between Webb and Blake Snell as the two traded zeroes through five. After Josh Bell reached on catcher’s interference, Webb picked up his first K of the night on this change to Jake Cronenworth.
Featured image by Justin Paradis (@JustParaDesigns of Twitter)