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.
As a bonus for PL+ members, let us know about a pitch on the PL+ Discord in the Nasty Pitches Channel, and if your suggestion is included the next day, you’ll be entered into a weekly drawing for a free T-shirt!
Sandy Alcantara’s Fastball
https://gfycat.com/smughappyasiandamselfly
Sandy Alcantara labored through the first few hitters of his outing against the Cardinals, but got back on track with this hairy 97 MPH sinking four-seamer to strike out Nolan Arenado. He ended up going an Olympian eight innings with only 98 pitches, but still couldn’t get the win, as Anthony Bender promptly gave up two runs in the top of the ninth and the Marlins failed to score.
Shane Bieber’s Slider
https://gfycat.com/basicmeagerazurevasesponge
For additional context on how nasty this slider from Shane Bieber was, Tim Anderson had already seen four others in this 10-pitch at bat. This one just disappeared on him.
Carlos Rodón’s Fastball
https://gfycat.com/glummealyichthyosaurs
On a night when his breaking stuff wasn’t working for him, Carlos Rodón still managed to induce 18 swinging strikes and held a very good Mets lineup scoreless through five innings thanks to pinpoint fastball location.
Zach Eflin’s Curveball
https://gfycat.com/tauttiredkatydid
Zach Eflin battled through 5.2 innings against a hot Rockies lineup, allowing nine hits and four ERs. However, he also notched five strikeouts starting with this show-up of CJ Cron, and the Phillies went on to a 9-6 win.
Luis Severino’s Changeup
https://gfycat.com/femininefaintaphid
Although Gerrit Cole is struggling so far this season, the rest of the Yankees staff is picking up the slack. Luis Severino only managed three strikeouts on his way to a win against the Tigers on Wednesday, but executed pitches when he needed to — including this off-speed to fool Robbie Grossman.
Mitch Keller’s Curveball
https://gfycat.com/scientificlegitimategrayfox
Although Mitch Keller’s topline numbers are ugly (6.23 ERA, 1.69 WHIP so far in 2022), there’s no question he has elite stuff. He flashed his potential in this matchup against Kolten Wong. It featured a 97 MPH fastball up in the zone that Wong had to foul off, a hard slider that Wong also fouled off, then wrapped up with this filthy curve to end the inning.
Giovanny Gallegos‘ Slider
https://gfycat.com/coordinatedidealistickob
Giovanny Gallegos seemed to be headed for trouble after giving up a hit to Avisail Garcia and then walking Brian Anderson, but recovered by sitting down Jacob Stallings with this disappearing slider and then inducing a groundout from Miguel Rojas to record his second save of the year.
Shohei Ohtani’s Splitter
https://gfycat.com/aggressivegrotesquebronco
Although Shohei Ohtani gave up the first MLB home-run against his split to Jonah Heim in his last outing, it was working for him on Wednesday. He was perfect through five innings before giving up a single to Jason Castro in the sixth. He finished the day with an astronomical 12 strikeouts in six innings of work.
Featured image by Justin Paradis (@JustParaDesigns of Twitter)