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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Michael Kopech’s Slider
https://gfycat.com/whimsicalsorrowfulabyssiniangroundhornbill
Starting the article off with Major League Baseball’s successful night at the Field of Dreams Game. This game featured a back and forth late-inning affair. Michael Kopech flashed his electric stuff in relief, as here we see him escape further damage by striking out Rougned Odor with a nasty backfoot slider bearing down and in, which Odor had no luck with, swinging right through.
Marcus Stroman’s Sinker
https://gfycat.com/femalelankyflies
Marcus Stroman struck out eight in 5.1 strong innings in the first game of a doubleheader on Thursday, with an equally impressive 38% CSW. His most impressive pitch came to here to strike out Riley Adams with a gorgeous sinker, which Adams had no luck with chasing down in the dirt.
Jeurys Familia’s Fastball
https://gfycat.com/corruptadmirableasianpiedstarling
Jeurys Familia is seen here dotting the corner in the bottom of the 7th to keep this game tied after blowing the save earlier in the inning. This pitch is perfectly painted on the corner to catch Ryan Zimmerman looking and keep the game tied, which allowed the Mets to walk it off just a half-inning later.
Chris Bassitt’s Curveball
https://gfycat.com/illiterateoffensiveivorybilledwoodpecker
While the A’s offense exploded for 17 runs yesterday in the win over Cleveland, the arguably more impressive performance came from Chris Bassitt, who threw six shutout innings with a 28% CSW. Here we see one of his six strikeouts, a slow 73 mile per hour curveball, which Myles Straw could not wait for as he swings right through it and goes down on strikes again.
Shohei Ohtani’s Splitter
https://gfycat.com/potablerawelk
Shohei Ohtani was at it again on Thursday, showing off on both sides of the ball in the Angels’ win over the Blue Jays. In his six innings of work, Ohtani struck out six and allowed only two runs to bring his ERA under 3.00. Ohtani started the game off strong with this splitter to get one of the game’s hottest hitters, George Springer, to expand the zone and go down swinging.
Nabil Crismatt’s Changeup
https://gfycat.com/flusteredgranularfireant
Nabil Crismatt ate up two strong innings of relief on Thursday in the Padres’ loss to the Diamondbacks. In those innings, he committed pitcher-on-pitcher crime with this nasty changeup to Caleb Smith, who had no chance to put it in play.
Ashton Goudeau’s Changeup
https://gfycat.com/failingagileibadanmalimbe
Ashton Goudeau ate three innings of relief on Thursday after German Marquez struggled early. Goudeau struck out two and did not allow a single hit. Among these punchouts was this changeup to Darin Ruf, which bore right in on him and caused Ruf to swing right through it. A “Ruf” at-bat for him, coming off the bench as a pinch hitter.
Featured image by Justin Paradis (@JustParaDesigns of Twitter)