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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Yu Darvish’s Slider – Man oh man, where has this thing been? Darvish got five swinging strikes out of 26 sliders thrown in his four innings of work on Tuesday. None were nastier than this late breaking hurricane that completely screwed Freddie Freeman into the ground.
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Noah Syndergaard’s Fastball – If I could just upload every single pitch of Syndergaard’s, I would. This pitch looked and moved exactly like your typical hard changeup, with the announce even (incorrectly) calling it a change at first glance. The problem? It was freakin’ 98 miles per hour. Holy Moly.
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Jose Berrios’ Curveball – The Berrios curveball that we’ve all come to know and love finally came back yesterday, as he threw 33 of them and generated nine swinging strikes. This beauty to Tommy Pham showed what Berrios is capable of when this pitch is on. Truly nasty.
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Mike Foltynewicz’s Slider – Low and inside is typically a risky spot to pitch a left-handed hitter, but when it’s a nasty slider that sits high-80’s, you can get away with it more often. Folty placed this pitch perfectly in on Kyle Schwarber’s hands, and he had no chance to make contact.
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Jaime Barria’s Changeup – Barria had another outstanding outing on Tuesday, fanning seven in seven strong innings against the Astros. His changeup ran away from Marwin Gonzalez here, getting the utility man to chase. Nice.
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Jordan Lyles‘ Curveball – It’s hard to ignore the man of the hour. Lyles took a perfect game into the eighth inning on Tuesday before having it broken up on a single by Trevor Story. His curveball had wicked movement all afternoon, and Carlos Gonzales found on the hard way here in the fifth inning.
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Steven Wright’s Knuckleball – With Wright active and pitching out of the Boston bullpen, the knuckleball is back. Here is an offering to Stephen Piscotty, who had no chance of making contact. Wright’s control was suspect, as knuckleballs often are, but when he located well it was pure magic.
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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