Every morning we review the nastiest pitches from the previous day’s games in glorious HD GIFs. Don’t forget to vote for your favorite pitch and check back this weekend to see if it will be in contention for the GIF of the First Half Contest. Did we miss your favorite pitch? Send us a tweet next time @PitcherList and we’ll GIF it up + give you a shoutout here in the article.
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Trevor Bauer’s Curveball – Eight shutout innings and ten strikeouts for Bauer outage on Wednesday against the Tigers. This nasty curveball that fell right into the bottom of the strike zone was devastating, and even a hot hitter like Nicholas Castellanos could do nothing but wave as it darted by.
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Garrett Richards‘ Slider – Richards’ 90 mile per hour vertical slider is one of the nastiest pitches in all of baseball. Here poor Evan Gattis waves his bat like a magic wand, hoping maybe he can make the world go in slow motion so he can try and hit that pitch. Even then, that pitch is too filthy.
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Craig Kimbrel’s Curveball – As if possessing 98 mile per hour heat wasn’t enough, Kimbrel also has this nasty high-80’s curveball that flies across the strike zone. Matt Olson did his best to anticipate location, but it’s pretty tough with a breaker like that.
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Miles Mikolas‘ Slider – Mikolas didn’t have his strongest outing on Wednesday, giving up seven hits and two walks in just 4 2/3 innings. His tight, 90 per hour slider still did plenty of damage though, including getting in on Ehire Adrianza for a swinging strike. Nasty.
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Jameson Taillon’s Curveball – Taillon was an out away from a quality start on Wednesday, striking out five against the White Sox. One of those was opposing pitcher Hector Santiago. While striking out an AL pitcher isn’t a huge accomplishment, I imagine any of Chicago’s hitters would have struggled to hit this filth from Taillon.
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A.J. Minter’s Cutter – This cutter by Minter is a solid pitch that is made excellent by his pinpoint location. Armed with a 98 mile per hour two seamer and this sharp, 92 mile per hour cutter, Minter has a lot of promise in Atlanta’s bullpen. Locating 92 just off the plate away to a left-hander will get you just about anywhere.
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Justin Verlander’s Slider – Is that Justin Verlander or Allen Iverson out there breaking ankles on the mound? Even though Shohei Ohtani was able to hold up, this is still an unbelievably filthy pitch from Verlander. That half-swing made Ohtani look like, well, your typical AL pitcher at the plate.
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Nick Pivetta’s Fastball – Straight up, 96 mile per hour fastballs should not move like this. Pivetta really brought it on Wednesday, striking out 11 in seven strong innings. This heater to Chance Sisco had no ‘chance’ of getting hit.
GIF Of The Night
Which was your favorite pitch? Vote below and the winner will be featured in the GIF of the First Half Contest.
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What was the nastiest pitch? All of the above