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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Luis Garcia’s Slider
Five and fly from Garcia yesterday, but he got the job done and held the Yankees to two runs while earning the win in Game 2 for the sweep. Speaking of sweep, how about this slider? Or maybe it’s a curveball? We’ll call it a slider because Savant says so, and judging by this swing from Giancarlo Stanton, I’m not sure he knew either.
Michael King’s Sinker
With the first game of yesterday’s doubleheader tied 2-2 in the bottom of the ninth, King allowed a leadoff single to Alex Bregman followed by a double to Aledmys Díaz. But he nearly got out of the jam. He struck out Yuli Gurriel on this ankle-biting sinker for the first out before allowing the game-winning to score on a softly hit single from J.J. Matijevic.
Domingo Acevedo’s Changeup
In Game 2 of yesterday’s Oakland and Detroit doubleheader, Javier Báez got more than he could handle in his third at-bat; three straight changeups from Acevedo all located in the exact same spot and he whiffed on all three, this was the last.
Jon Gray’s Slider
Gray pitched well and earned the win shutting out the visiting Marlins through six innings of work; his slider carried him as it returned a 37% CSW across 49 pitches. Similar to Javier Báez above, Jorge Soler was worked by the Gray slider; three-straight swings and misses on the pitch for the punchout.
Jordan Montgomery’s Curveball
Montgomery came out of the All-Star break looking sharp and held the Astros to two earned runs while needing just 86 pitches to pitch into the seventh in Game 1 of the Yankees/Astros doubleheader. He flipped this beautifully located curveball to retire Kyle Tucker on strikes in his first at-bat.
Craig Kimbrel’s Knuckle Curve
Darin Ruf belted a grand slam that briefly gave the Giants the lead, but their pen couldn’t hold. Seeking to replicate his heroics in his third at-bat, he was instead turned away by this knuckle curve from the Dodger closer for the first out of the ninth.
Featured image by Justin Paradis (@JustParaDesigns of Twitter)