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 Second 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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Tayron Guerrero’s Fastball – At times, Guerrero plays the part of an apex predator, slinging 100+ with movement and a sweep-the-leg follow-through that would make anyone from Cobra Kai proud. His 21 fastballs thrown against the Braves averaged 99.7 mph, and quite a few featured the bite seen here against Ozzie Albies.
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Mike Foltynewicz’s Two-Seamer – Folty had an ideal matchup against a weak Marlins lineup, and he delivered with eight K’s and one earned run over six innings. His two-seamer featured some nasty bite, as it left Rafael Ortega flipping his bat for all the wrong reasons after this fifth-inning whiff.
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Rich Hill’s Curveball – Hill’s Players Weekend nickname was “D. Mountain,” and the jokes abound—especially considering this knockout of Hunter Renfroe. But this is a family site, damnit, and all the barbs one could imagine were thrown around on Twitter last night anyway, so we’ll leave it to you to hone your own comedy chops with this one.
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Jordan Hicks‘ Sinker – Hot. Damn. The drop on this fastball combined with the 100 mph velocity left Rockies outfielder David Dahl flailing helplessly as the rookie reliever worked his way to a scoreless inning.
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Ken Giles’s Slider – Good old Odubel Herrera. You can always count on the Phillies outfielder and his wayward helmet to spice up a swinging strike, and he (and it) didn’t disappoint here against the Blue Jays closer. Giles locked down the final inning for his 17th save.
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Hector Neris’ Splitter – The Phillies reliever has had his troubles this year, but his signature out pitch features a 24.2% whiff rate and can still make batters look silly when it’s on. Here, he got the drop on Toronto’s Justin Smoak as the firstbaseman went for a moonshot.
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Alex Cobb’s Splitter – Cobb picked up just three swinging strikes on 27 splitters thrown, but this one to Miguel Andujar fell below the zone late to bring on the whiff-‘n-spin.
GIF of the Night
Which was your favorite pitch? Vote below, and the winner will be featured in the GIF of the Second Half Contest.
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