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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Carlos Carrasco’s Changeup
The Mets are in the thick of a division battle with Atlanta, and after suffering a sweep from the Cubs, they needed a big night from Carrasco. And the veteran delivered an outstanding outing; Six innings, 11 punchouts, and just one earned run. He had his changeup working last night. This one fooled Rodolfo Castro, who entered last night riding a six-game hit streak, for the second out in the first.
Lance Lynn’s Fastball
Lynn did his part yesterday as the White Sox are fighting to stay alive in the playoff race. Despite the 8-2 win, the Sox are still trailing the Guardians four games in the loss column for the AL Central. But with 18 games left to play, there’s still enough time to make things interesting. Anyways, the big righty’s heater did work yesterday as this one sat down Oscar Gonzalez, who is hitting .346 with a 1.046 OPS in September, to end the first.
Shane McClanahan’s Slider
A sight for sore eyes as McClanahan returned to the mound yesterday. And it was everything the Rays could have hoped for as he tossed five scoreless innings against a tough Jays lineup. His velocity was excellent as the heater averaged 97.7 MPH. The slider wasn’t too shabby either and returned six whiffs on 11 swings, including this disaster from George Springer that sent him packing in the third.
Jhoan Duran’s Curveball
Hey, Jhoan Duran closed out a game for the Twins. That hasn’t happened in a while. The ninth started a little shaky for the right-hander as he allowed singles to Salvador Perez and Vinnie Pasquantino, but he got the job done and sealed a 3-2 win. Duran saved his best for last and snapped off this filthy hook to dispatch Nick Pratto for the final out of the game.
Kevin Gausman’s Splitter
Gausman gave the Jays seven innings yesterday but was undone by a three-run dinger from Yandy Díaz. His splitter wasn’t great as a whole and got just three whiffs on 15 swings. But this one that struck out René Pinto was a beauty.
Drey Jameson’s Slider
An exciting moment for D-Backs fans as they got to see one of their top pitching prospects make their debut last night. So how did it go? Well, how about seven shutout innings and just three baserunners. Not too bad. Hey, he even froze Juan Soto with a 97 MPH heater in his first at-bat of the night. His slider had some moments, too, including this sharp one to Jake Cronenworth in the second inning.
Featured image by Justin Paradis (@JustParaDesigns of Twitter)