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.
Hayden Birdsong’s Slider
The 22-year-old rookie out of Eastern Illinois had a not-so-great day at the office, surrendering five earned runs on four hits and didn’t make it through four. Control seems to be his biggest bugaboo; he walked four and came into the outing toting a bottom-fourth percentile zone rate on his heater. That’s going to make things very difficult. Still, you don’t have to squint much to see some good. His offspeed pitches have earned plenty of whiffs, including this picture-perfect slider that fanned Gary Sánchez. Patrick Bailey barely had to move his mitt.
Ben Joyce’s Fastball
Hitters pretty much know what they’re up against when they are in the box against Ben Joyce. Here it is, hit it. Trey Sweeney found that easier said than done and went down swinging following a leadoff single from Zack McKinstry. Joyce retired the next two batters without fuss en route to his fourth save. Joyce is a little rough around the edges, but it’s hard not to be excited about his potential as a big closer for years to come.
Nathan Eovaldi’s Splitter
Eo had a brilliant afternoon against the Southsiders. Sure, they are one of the worst squads we’ve seen in years, but the two-time WS champ brought some legit nastiness, including his first pitch of the fifth inning, which rendered Gavin Sheets hapless. Sure enough, Sheets singled on the very next pitch. Go figure.
Nick Nastrini’s Curveball
Eovaldi racked up 10 strikeouts on 17 whiffs. However, the win was far from easy thanks to a strong effort from his counterpart, Nick Nastrini. The 24-year-old rookie also totaled 17 whiffs across his strongest performance thus far. Jonah Heim got the green light on a 3-1 count in his second at-bat and sat dead red. But Nastrini deftly pulled the string with a terrific nose-to-toes hook.
Prelander Berroa’s Slider
The White Sox recalled Prelander Berroa this Tuesday after DFA’ing Alex Brebbia. Berroa posted ugly numbers with Triple-A Charlotte, but the Sox will give him a shot to prove himself. Hey, at this point, why not? At the very least, his slider has some serious bite, which Marcus Semien can attest to.
Nathan Eovaldi’s Curveball
Sure, Nicky Lopez isn’t a good hitter thanks to his complete lack of power. But he is quite good at making contact with a 14.7% K rate. Nonetheless, Eovaldi badly fooled him with a curveball that fell straight off a cliff for his first of ten punchouts.
Cristopher Sánchez’s Changeup
Sánchez began the night dotting the outside corner against Braves’ leadoff hitter, Whit Merrifield. However, he couldn’t fool Matt Olson who spoiled his line with a pair of long balls. Still, the slim southpaw’s changeup did some serious lifting yielding a 41% whiff rate.
Kutter Crawford’s Cutter
The only thing that would’ve made this Crawford cutter better was if Joey Loperfido took it for a called third strike so we could’ve written the backward K on the scorecard. It’s the little things. The Crawford cutter has been one of the best in baseball yielding a 92nd-percentile chase rate while limiting hitters to a 29.3% ICR (88th percentile). Sure, he has a not-great 4.19 ERA, but he deserves better than an 8-12 record.
Brady Singer’s Slider
A sharp slider from Singer got a sword from Jon Singleton and set up his second strikeout of the game on the next pitch, a sinker for a called third strike. However, Singleton won the rematch with an excuse-me swing that produced a grounder just inside the third base line for a double. Singer didn’t factor in the decision but pitched well, holding the Astros to two runs across six innings thanks largely to his bread-and-butter slider inducing a 42% whiff rate.
Rich Hill’s Sweeper
After last year’s stop in San Diego and Pittsburgh, the Boston native is back where it all began. Let’s doff our caps to the man who is one of the final four active pitchers who can say they began their big league career with George W. Bush in the Oval Office. Hill entered with two down in the seventh and began his fourth Fenway tenure with a strikeout on a glorious sweeper. More like Daulton Varsh-who?