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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Lance McCullers Jr.s Knuckle Curveball
https://gfycat.com/quarrelsomefoolhardygalapagosalbatross
Lance McCullers Jr. got the postseason off on the right foot with 6.2 scoreless innings against the White Sox, along with a 31% CSW leading Houston to a 6-1 Game 1 victory. As was the case down the stretch, McCullers lead the way with his knuckle-curveball and had his off-speed pitches working all night, as evidenced by this curveball down to Yasmani Grandal to send him down swinging.
Lance Lynn’s Cutter
https://gfycat.com/alertmemorablealaskanhusky
While the afternoon did not go as planned for Lance Lynn, only lasting 3.2 innings, he does make an appearance on the nastiest pitch article with this beautiful cutter moving down and away into the other batter’s box getting Jose Altuve to flail and miss at the pitch.
Reynaldo López’s Slider
https://gfycat.com/chubbydistinctamericanpainthorse
After allowing a home run to Yordan Alvarez, Reynaldo López bounced back to strike out Yuli Gurriel on a slider down. López came in relief of Lance Lynn with two strong innings and two strikeouts, including the one featured above.
Shane McClanahan’s Fastball
https://gfycat.com/weakdarkboutu
Shane McClanahan did not look overmatched in his first postseason start, throwing five shutout innings in Tamps Bay’s Game 1 win over Boston. In those five innings, he struck out three batters, hitting 100 miles per hour on his fastball and blowing it right past the bat of Rafael Devers.
David Robertson’s Curveball
https://gfycat.com/friendlywellgroomedearwig
David Robertson reminded us of his old vintage self on Thursday with a scoreless inning of relief to hold the Rays lead in the seventh inning. Here we see him drop in a gorgeous curveball to Christian Vazquez to set up the next pitch, which he would retire him on.
J.P. Feyereisen’s Fastball
https://gfycat.com/needyboldfly
J.P. Feyereisen finished off the Rays’ 5-0 win over the Red Sox with two scoreless innings and two strikeouts. Among these strikeouts was this rising fastball, once again past the bat of Rafael Devers, capping off a rough day for him. Feyereisen joins a long list of Rays relievers with the stuff to crack this list game in and game out.
Featured image by Justin Paradis (@JustParaDesigns of Twitter)