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.
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Chris Sale’s Slider
https://gfycat.com/fittingwarlikecrocodileskink
Ever since he has come back from the Injured List, Chris Sale has looked like his old self and flashed that vintage strikeout stuff we know he has. That stuff was on display on Thursday with eight strikeouts in 5.2 strong innings in the win over the Twins. Among those eight strikeouts was an immaculate inning, heavily featuring his slider which has a CSW of a whopping 43%. Above we see one of these eight strikeouts, a far moving slider down into the feet of Brent Rooker, sending him down swinging.
Tony Santillan’s Slider
https://gfycat.com/merryacidichackee
Tony Santillan struggled in relief for the Reds on Thursday, only picking up one out. However, his one out did get himself onto the nastiest pitch article as he sets up a strikeout with this nasty backfoot slider to Jackie Bradley Jr., forcing a very uncomfortable-looking swing and miss.
Ryan Tepera’s Slider
https://gfycat.com/regalwelloffbadger
Ryan Tepera pitched a perfect seventh inning to preserve the lead over the Blue Jays on Thursday. Two of these three outs came via the strikeout as he continues to be another trusted arm Tony La Russa can lean on late in games. Here we see one of these two strikeouts, a nasty slider going into the left-handed batter’s box causing Alejandro Kirk to flail and miss at the pitch.
Miles Mikolas‘ Cutter
https://gfycat.com/admirablesnivelingcollardlizard
Miles Mikolas does not often find himself on this list, but did so here with a nasty cutter moving late out of the zone to send Michael Chavis down swinging — the only time he was out this entire game, may I add.
Emmanuel Clase’s Cutter
https://gfycat.com/adorablehoarseladybug
Emmanuel Classe’s cutter just seems unhittable at times. That’s exactly how it looked here to finish off the win over the Rangers on Thursday, part of his perfect ninth inning of relief. We see him dial this pitch up to 102 miles per hour here as the ball cuts late into the left-handed batter’s box, producing a very awkward check swing by Andy Ibáñez, as he is rung up.
Max Scherzer’s Slider
https://gfycat.com/idolizedselfishantarcticgiantpetrel
Max Scherzer dominated his way to 7.2 innings of two-hit baseball while striking out 10 Padres as he continues to flourish since joining this Los Angeles rotation. As always, many of his pitches were candidates for this article, as he boasted a 34% CSW. But this slider that left Fernando Tatis Jr. to be unable to hold up on a pitch almost in the other batter’s box has to take the cake with the incredible movement shown.
Clay Holmes‘ Slider
https://gfycat.com/beneficialsoggykookaburra
Clay Holmes did not get the fanfare that other trades the Yankees made over the last month have gotten, but he has been a key part of the Yankees pen and is becoming a very trusted arm for Aaron Boone to bridge the gap to the big back end guys. Holmes came on and struck out three A’s to hold the game tied in his lone inning of work, the most impressive of these being this slider out of the zone that forced this weak hack from Sean Murphy.
Aroldis Chapman’s Splitter
https://gfycat.com/breakableenragedfrenchbulldog
Aroldis Chapman helped the Yankees extend their winning streak to 12 straight games, picking up career save number 300 of his career. In his scoreless ninth, he dropped this nasty splitter out of the zone forcing the swing and miss from Mark Canha, a pitch that — when he has it going — helps him be unhittable. After a poor outing last time out, he needed a scoreless inning like this, and this splitter helped.
Featured image by Justin Paradis (@JustParaDesigns of Twitter)