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.
Ranger Suárez’s Curveball
We kick things off today with a helmet-removing curveball from Ranger Suárez. This pitch was just 76 mph but its deception caused Andy Ibáñez to take an ugly hack. Suarez finished this game with four strikeouts and surrendered four runs to the Tigers.
Hunter Brown’s Fastball
Hunter writes about Hunter striking out Hunter. At least none of us puked on the mound yesterday like Hunter Greene. Anyways, this 99 mph fastball was just one of the many dominant pitches thrown by Brown last night. He struck out seven Rockies and now has surrendered just one run over his last four games.
Tarik Skubal’s Fastball
Speaking of fastballs, Skubal fired one of his fastest of the night here to Kyle Schwarber at 101 mph. Against arguably the best team in baseball right now, Skubal allowed just three hits over seven scoreless innings.
Mitch Keller’s Sweeper
Sitting with a six-point lead, Keller made quick work of Stuart Fairchild with this nasty sweeper that just barely connects with the strike zone. Keller won’t blow you away with velocity so pitches like this are usually his specialty.
Seth Lugo’s Curveball
Lugo forces Jesus Sanchez to one knee with this nasty curveball that secures the Royals’ one-run lead. Miami has been a strikeout factory over June. They sport the third-worst collective mark at 26.1%.
Brandon Pfaadt’s Sweeper
This has got to be one of the smoothest deliveries in baseball. Pfaadt perfectly places this sweeper on the outside of the plate, leaving Willi Castro frozen in his tracks. Nothing to argue about here, just a perfectly placed pitch.
Kyle Hendricks‘ Curveball
This one has some serious movement. Hendricks needs some serious movement on his pitches because he is one of the slowest pitchers in the league. His fastball averages under 88 mph. I don’t blame Jorge Soler for swinging at this. It looked like it was coming right down the pipe.
Hunter Brown’s Fastball
Brown was so dominant last night that I had to squeeze in a second one. This rising fastball to Nolan Jones was one of his best pitches of the night. Although striking out Jones isn’t hard. He punches out 32.4% of the time.
Emmanuel Clase’s Fastball
102 mph from Clase here. I’m not sure how you would even make contact with this pitch with where it is located. Based on Rutschman’s body language after the pitch, I’m guessing he doesn’t know either.
Brayan Bello’s Slider
We will conclude things with Brayan Bello, who had an awful night on the mound overall but managed to crack the nastiest pitches list with this slider to George Springer. Don’t worry, Springer got his revenge with a two-run bomb later in the game.