The 9 Nastiest Pitches from Sunday

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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Yu Darvish’s Cutter

 

https://gfycat.com/GreedySelfishBushbaby

 

Yu Darvish is a man of many pitches. Yesterday afternoon he threw six unique offerings and had strikeouts with four of them. That made it really tough to pick a favorite of his seven Ks yesterday. Usually, I like to go with his slider or sinker, but today I was amazed by this filthy cutter that was the first out on the day for Darvish. Just check out the break on that slo-mo replay, it’s fantastic.

 

Gerrit Cole’s Slider

 

https://gfycat.com/WaryFluffyIslandcanary

 

It was a rough outing on the mound for Gerrit Cole yesterday. The Yankees’ ace allowed six runs over five innings pitched. There’s probably going to be talk about Cole’s lack of sticky stuff when people examine his stat line, but Cole was still able to get six strikeouts even without any foreign substance. Here he throws a wicked slider past Hunter Renfroe who flails at it for strike three.

 

Zack Wheeler’s Fastball

 

https://gfycat.com/ellipticalhoarsechick

 

Former Met Zack Wheeler put on his best Jacob deGrom impression yesterday afternoon for the Phillies. Wheeler was dominant, with his fastball nearing triple digits and his slider touching 95. He struck out eight over seven scoreless innings, including Michael Conforto, who was frozen on strike three on this painted 99 mph fastball.

 

Tarik Skubal’s Knuckle-Curve

 

https://gfycat.com/memorablewildgraysquirrel

 

Talking about fantastic performances, we’ve got Tarik Skubal and what might just be one of the filthiest curves I’ve seen all year. Skubal gets some insane vertical drop on a nasty hook that fools Chas McCormick. It was one of his nine strikeouts over seven frames.

 

Max Scherzer’s Changeup

 

https://gfycat.com/FixedNastyAnaconda

 

Max Scherzer’s last start was full of some sticky controversy, but this one was less eventful. Scherzer dominated the Marlins yesterday, as he tossed six quality innings and struck out seven. Here he threw his nastiest pitch of the afternoon, a 2-2 changeup that got Jesús Aguilar swinging.

 

Patrick Sandoval’s Slider

 

https://gfycat.com/RealisticHotJackal

 

If there’s one team in baseball that’s constantly being held back by their pitching it’s the Angels. However, Patrick Sandoval has been somewhat of a bright spot this year on a struggling staff. Sandoval pitched pretty meh on the mound yesterday as he allowed three runs over five innings, but his strikeout stuff was working. He had six Ks including this one on a filthy slider to Brandon Lowe.

 

Kyle Muller’s Curveball

 

https://gfycat.com/FluidSophisticatedKouprey

 

Kyle Muller had a fantastic second MLB start yesterday. The hard-throwing 23-year-old allowed just one hit over five innings and struck out nine hitters, and he even picked up his first career win. Here Muller lays a perfect curveball right by the bat of Aristides Aquino who swings at a ball that drops out on him.

 

Dillon Tate’s Slider

 

https://gfycat.com/LavishHandyAfricanparadiseflycatcher

 

Dillon Tate pitched two perfect innings in relief yesterday for the Orioles and only allowed one batter to put a ball in play. Here’s the second of his five strikeouts on the afternoon, a wicked slider that slips right by the bat of George Springer.

 

Clayton Kershaw’s Slider

 

https://gfycat.com/thirdidlebellsnake

 

Last, but certainly not least, we’ve got Clayton Kershaw and his filthy slider. Kershaw was his usual Hall of Fame self last night on the mound, striking out a baker’s dozen over eight innings. He used his slider on 10 of those 13, so there were a lot to choose from, but in the end I decided to go with this nasty back-foot slider that breaks in on Javier Báez.

 

 

Featured image by Justin Paradis (@JustParaDesigns on Twitter)