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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Jorge López’s Slider
https://gfycat.com/tinyicyindiancow
Jorge López threw this beautiful slider to paint the corner and catch Christian Vázquez looking for a backwards K. López pitched 5.2 strong innings, striking out five with a 31% CSW% on the night. He didn’t earn the win but he did pitch well enough to do so if the Orioles could have gotten a few more runs off of Martín Pérez. Sometimes that’s just the way it goes.
Luis García’s Curveball
https://gfycat.com/silvertamealdabratortoise
I love the little hop and skip from Luis García here after this filthy curveball to strike out Shohei Ohtani. García’s breaking stuff was working on Monday night, with a 16/31 CSW between his slider and curveball.
Heath Hembree’s Slider
https://gfycat.com/revolvinghelplessflyinglemur
Heath Hembree has bounced around a bit in recent years but he’s pitched well so far in his time in Cincinnati. This slider to mow down Troy Stokes Jr. broke a ton, and Stokes had no chance to catch up to this one.
Phillips Valdéz’s Changeup
https://gfycat.com/tintedthosedove
Phillips Valdéz has had some highs and some lows in his Red Sox career, but this changeup looks promising. I’m not sure if he’s made any adjustments to it this year, but I don’t remember him having this filth in his arsenal. You’ve caught my eye, Phillips.
Alex Wood’s Slider
https://gfycat.com/terrificshockingegg
Alex Wood pitched a gem, striking out seven and allowing only one run over seven innings. He had a 42% CSW% on his slider and struck out Isiah Kiner-Falefa with this same pitch in the same spot twice on the night. Wood is rolling right now.
César Valdez’s Sinker
https://gfycat.com/sereneadoredamericanrobin
César Valdez’s changeup is the pitch I’m usually looking for whenever he pitches, but this beautiful sinker to end the game caught me by surprise. Yeah, it was supposed to be down in the zone, but he still got good movement on it and it painted the corner in the top of the zone beautifully. Rafael Devers knew immediately that he got fooled.
Kyle Gibson’s Curveball
https://gfycat.com/handmadevariablekinglet
Kyle Gibson threw only four curveballs on the night and this was the only one to register a strike, but boy was it a good one. It got a ton of vertical drop and was spotted perfectly below the zone. Gibson also pitched well on the night and is settling into a groove himself.
Amir Garrett’s Slider
https://gfycat.com/scalyafraidfeline
Amir Garrett has not pitched well this season, and he came into this game in the bottom of the seventh with a 10-run lead. He may just need to build up some confidence before working his way back into a late inning role, but I have no doubt that he’ll get back there at some point this season. He’s too nasty to be a low-leverage reliever.
Jorge López’s Changeup
https://gfycat.com/harmonioussarcastickakapo
Our second Jorge López pitch is a changeup inside the zone, very similar to the Phillips Valdéz pitch above. It’s gorgeous and I couldn’t leave it out, so here it is for your enjoyment.
Featured image by Justin Paradis (@JustParaDesigns of Twitter)
Half of these pitches are nowhere near the strike zone. I will never understand how that would make a good pitch. Its more like bad hitting. It is the reason that I have no interest in best pitch of the day gifs.