Every morning, the We Love Baseball crew reviews the Nastiest Pitches from the previous day’s games. If you see something you think should be included here be sure to tweet @PitcherList to let us know. Or, if you’re a PL+ Member and part of our Discord, shout it out in the Nastiest Pitches channel.
Framber Valdez’s Curveball
How do you follow up a no-hit bid? If you’re Framber Valdez, you allow one run, a walk, and three hits over five-and-a-third innings while striking out nine. Valdez’s curve was essential to his pulverizing performance, accounting for eight of his nine strikeouts. It melts Curtis Mead here and draws a downward swing that’d never touch a stitch.
Andrew Abbott’s Sweeper
The headline of this at-bat between Andrew Abbott and Brendan Donovan is Abbott escaping a bases-loaded situation. The subhead should be how. Abbott deploys a sweeper to strike out Donovan with as much stank and creativity as a Hunter S. Thompson dispatch to Rolling Stone. Abbott, like Thompson, spun gold, striking out six Cardinals on the night and allowing just one run over six-and-two-thirds innings.
Pedro Avila’s Curveball
Pedro Avila can sometimes fly under the radar in a bullpen with Cade Smith, Emmanuel Clase, Tim Herrin, and Hunter Gaddis. But not tonight. Avila carved through the Cubbies, retiring seven and striking out two during his two-and-a-third innings. Catcher Miguel Amaya looks helpless against this careening curveball that leaves him a creature void of form.
Blake Snell’s Slider
Second-half Blake Snell is no joke. The reigning Cy Young winner opened the first by striking out the side. His third punchout came courtesy of this front-door slider that locks Matt Olson up like a prisoner at Alcatraz. Not that the slugger is at fault. This slider is a no-win pitch. You either spot its movement, somehow try to connect with it, and fail, or watch it land on the black for strike three. Either way, it’s adios.
Brayan Bello’s Slider
There’s chasing a pitch out of the strike zone, and then there’s this. This Brayan Bello slider is low, away, and nearly buried in the dirt when Adolis García gets the bat off his shoulders. Goodness. Of course, that’s not to discredit Bello’s feel for the ball. This slider corkscrews through the air beautifully and drives toward the zone before disappearing into the Nether Realm.
Emmanuel Clase’s Cutter
All the glory of this at-bat will flow to Emmanuel Clase like honey. Deservedly so. He pumps a 99-mile-per-hour unhittable cross-body cutter with remarkable ease. He is Goalith. But for a fleeting second, let’s say our prayers for Dansby Swanson. The shortstop stood in the box like fodder blissfully unaware of the supersonic pitch about to scream past his bat.
Freddy Peralta’s Slider
Where does the natural world stop and the supernatural world start? Mookie Betts asked himself that question in the first inning when he flew out of the batter’s box as if pushed by a poltergeist. Thankfully, science can explain what might drive a hitter to react like this: Freddy Peralta’s slider. Peralta bewitched Betts with this biting slider that spins just enough to draw a hellacious swing from the former MVP.
Clayton Kershaw’s Curveball
Peralta wasn’t the only pitcher in Milwaukee to evoke the mystic arts. Striking out hitters is an old hat for Clayton Kershaw, but he makes it look easy against Garrett Mitchell. This curve flutters through the air, hangs in the zone long enough to draw Mitchell’s attention, and just as he measures his swing, disappears like an object in a Houdini act. Kershaw cut Milwaukee in half all night, pitching five-and-two-third scoreless innings while striking out six.
Shota Imanaga’s Splitter
Shota Imanaga came out hot. The 30-year-old rookie opened Monday’s affair by striking out Lane Thomas thanks to this nasty sinking sweeper. It seemed like an indicator of things as Imanaga retired five of the first batters he faced. That indicator, however, soon switched from green to red. An Isaac Paredes error helped Cleveland put seven runs on the board in the fourth and fifth innings to reduce Imanaga from a boil to a simmer.
Taj Bradley’s Cutter
Poet Walt Whitman would be proud to find multitudes within Taj Bradley. The Rays pitcher vacillates between two things: He can be one of the best pitchers in the game, evidenced by his 0.82 ERA from June 8 to July 25, and gnarly cutters like this. Seriously. Look at the downward slope this cutter generates as it torpedoes toward the zone. But Bradley can also be much the opposite. He’s allowed 15 runs over his last three starts to the tune of a 9.64 ERA.
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Photos courtesy of Icon Sportswire
Adapted by Kurt Wasemiller (@kurtwasemiller on Twitter / @kurt_player02 on Instagram