Every morning, the We Love Baseball crew reviews the Nastiest Pitches from the previous day’s games in glorious high-definition GIFs. We want to bring you the highest caliber of nastiness possible, so if you see a nasty pitch, please tell us about it. You can tweet @PitcherList to let us know and we’ll give you a shout-out here in the article if your tip makes the cut.
As a bonus for PL+ members, let us know about a pitch on the PL+ Discord in the Nasty Pitches Channel, and if your suggestion is included the next day, you’ll be entered into a weekly drawing for a free T-shirt!
Tanner Houck’s Slider
https://gfycat.com/deadlyconfusedboto
Tanner Houck’s return to the rotation was very impressive, with eight strikeouts in 4.2 innings. Those punchouts added up to a 33% CSW and featured multiple entries for this article. In the end, this backdoor slider moving in on Rob Brantly was his best pitch of the night and had an incredible amount of movement to pick up the strikeout.
Anthony Bender’s Slider
https://gfycat.com/aromaticaffectionateboar
Opening up the game on Thursday for the Marlins was Anthony Bender, who pitched a perfect inning. In that inning, he picked up one strikeout, which came on this filthy moving slider which Fernando Tatis Jr. was unable to hold his bat on.
Charlie Morton’s Curveball
https://gfycat.com/bitesizedoilyborzoi
Charlie Morton pitched six strong innings on Thursday in the win over the Phillies, picking up eight strikeouts in this important divisional matchup. Leading the way for him was his curveball, which had a whopping 52% CSW. This curveball made its way into this article with this above pitch dropping down and out of the zone as Bryce Harper swings right through it for the strikeout.
Adbert Alzolay’s Slider
https://gfycat.com/insistentadeptamericanblackvulture
In his loss on Thursday, Abdert Alzolay picked up another quality start, punching out eight and accumulating a 32% CSW rate. Alzolay mixed his pitches well throughout the start and dropped this nasty slider into the other batter’s box to get Paul Goldschmidt down swinging.
Chris Martin’s Two-Seam Fastball
https://gfycat.com/acclaimeddevotedkitty
While Atlanta’s bullpen has been an issue throughout the season, it was not so much on Thursday. Chris Martin came in and faced one batter, but still found his way into this article with this two-seamer crossing back over the plate, causing Andrew McCutchen to be unable to catch up to the late movement.
Jordan Montgomery’s Curveball
https://gfycat.com/embarrassedsleepyarmyant
Jordan Montgomery continued his streak of very little run support in his 5.2 strong innings in a no-decision against the Red Sox. He picked up an impressive 34% CSW with six strikeouts, using multiple nasty curveballs. This curveball down to Bobby Dalbec had an impressive amount of drop and caused Dalbec to be way out in front with not much of a chance of making contact.
Sean Manaea’s Curveball
https://gfycat.com/granularleadingirishdraughthorse
On Thursday, Sean Manaea had arguably the best outing of the day, with thirteen strikeouts in seven strong innings of work and racked up a 42% CSW on the night. Among those strikeouts was this gorgeous breaker that perfectly painted the outside corner, catching Kyle Seager looking and sending him back to the dugout for the first of two times during the night.
Featured image by Justin Paradis (@JustParaDesigns of Twitter)
Just scrolled down to get here without watching any of the gifs, but I watched Houck’s start all I could think of was “This guy’s a gawdamm right-handed Chris Sale!!!!”
That slider is sick.
OK, now I’ll go back up and watch the contenders.
OK, that being said, Morton’s pitch was better.