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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Gerrit Cole’s Knuckle-Curve
https://gfycat.com/qualifieddelectableafricanwildcat
Last week set us up for chaos, but it was not meant to be as both the Yankees and Red Sox won on the final day of the season, securing their spot in the AL Wild Card game. In the winner-take-all game, New York sent out ace Gerrit Cole to take down their Eastern division rivals. Cole allowed a two-run homer in the first but would bounce back in the second and lead off the inning with a strikeout of Hunter Renfroe on a nasty curveball.
Nathan Eovaldi’s Curveball
https://gfycat.com/shrillonlychimpanzee
To counter the Yankees’ ace, the Red Sox started their own All-Star starter, Nathan Eovaldi. Eovaldi was dominant early on and spun around Brett Gardner on a breaking ball below the zone.
Nathan Eovaldi’s Slider
https://gfycat.com/ripeunrealisticgull
With only a single game on the docket Tuesday, we’ll have to double up on Nathan Eovaldi. This time we’ll feature his other breaking pitch, a sweeping slider that Kyle Higashioka chased below the zone.
Luis Severino’s Slider
https://gfycat.com/smoothregularkomododragon
With an all-hands-on-deck approach, the Yankees turned to their bullpen before Cole was able to record an out in the first inning. Luis Severino was the second man out of the pen and recorded a clean inning before allowing an RBI double to Alex Verdugo. His lone strikeout of the night came on a nice back-foot slider to Rafael Devers.
Tanner Houck’s Slider
https://gfycat.com/grandiosesomeasianconstablebutterfly
Young righty Tanner Houck cruised through his lone inning of work, picking up a pair of strikeouts along the way. After getting Brett Gardner on a high fastball, Houck put away Gio Urshela on a nice frisbee slider.
Featured image by Justin Paradis (@JustParaDesigns of Twitter)