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 Rodon’s Four-Seam Fastball
https://gfycat.com/belovedgrandioseemu
Carlos Rodon’s fastball velocity has been trending down for the last few months, but it returned today surely due to the intensity of the playoffs. He ramped it up to 99 here with some high heat that got Yordan Alvarez swinging to end the first.
Aaron Bummer’s Slider
https://gfycat.com/digitalcourageousiberianlynx
Aaron Bummer was one of many pitchers the White Sox sent out on Tuesday, and he may have had the best outing of the bunch. He recorded two of his four outs by way of the K and didn’t allow a run. He froze Alex Bregman on a big backdoor slider to end the sixth.
Lance McCullers Jr.’s Changeup
https://gfycat.com/loneselfreliantarieltoucan
Lance McCullers threw four strong innings in the Astros’ clinching victory on Tuesday. He did have to deal with a lot of activity on the base paths but consistently navigated out of trouble, allowing only a single run in the outing. He had five strikeouts on four different pitches and showed off a great changeup to Leury Garcia here.
Charlie Morton’s Curveball
https://gfycat.com/hugesillykitten
Charlie Morton took the hill in a potential clincher in Atlanta but was chased after only three and a third. Morton cruised through his first three innings before running into trouble in the fourth, allowing two runs to score. His curveball was as untouchable as ever; he picked up three strikeouts on the pitch along with a 43% CSW. Morton put away Rowdy Tellez to finish the first on a great breaking ball.
Josh Hader’s Slider
https://gfycat.com/equalunawareankolewatusi
Josh Hader was unsuccessful in his quest to preserve the tie in the bottom of the eight. He did, however, show off his patented nasty slider a few times en route to a pair of strikeouts. The first came here as Eddie Rosario chased a slider way off the plate.
Will Smith’s Slider
https://gfycat.com/inconsequentialfragrantdog
Freddie Freeman hit an 8th inning home run to give Atlanta a 5-4 lead, and Will Smith was called upon to close the door. Smith struck out the final two hitters of the ninth to clinch a trip to the NLCS and got Willy Adames with a great slider.
Walker Buehler’s Slider
https://gfycat.com/deliriousdeadhalcyon
The ball was given to Walker Buehler in an effort to stave off elimination in game four. The young righty performed admirably, and the Dodger offense came alive, rebounding from a shutout loss. LA rolled to a 7-2 victory. Buehler recorded four strikeouts and got a big whiff from Darin Ruf here on a slider.
Blake Treinen’s Sinker
https://gfycat.com/deficientgrossborzoi
Blake Treinen picked up four important outs for the Dodgers before handing the keys over for the ninth. Treinen’s two punchouts both came off of heaters, and this sinker down and in absolutely froze Curt Casali.
Featured image by Justin Paradis (@JustParaDesigns of Twitter)