From the ‘nastiest’ breaking balls to freezing fastballs, every Orioles pitcher details the best pitch of his career – The Denver Post

Kyle Gibson has thrown 26,340 pitches in his major league career. It’s a difficult task for the Orioles right-hander to select his favorite among them.

“That’s pretty tough,” the 35-year-old said.

The Baltimore Sun posed what seemed to be a simple question to every member of the Orioles’ pitching staff: “What do consider the best pitch you’ve thrown as a major leaguer?” An 11-year veteran on a team loaded with players in the early stages of their careers, Gibson was a rarity in being unable to come up with an answer.

Although some required a bit of thought in choosing theirs, each other Baltimore pitcher was able to select at least one offering, generally choosing a pitch that generated a positive result. Left-hander Cole Irvin was an exception in that regard; beyond a spring training changeup a few years ago that he said earned a nod of approval from future Hall of Fame slugger Miguel Cabrera, the first pitches that came to Irvin’s mind were ones he felt were executed well but ended up being hit hard.

“I remember those pitches more,” Irvin said, “because I know the feeling of not being able to get an out on those pitches, but you felt that you did everything in your power to make the right call, and baseball happened.”

Otherwise, the Orioles chose pitches that made opposing hitters look foolish, left them frozen or simply got them out in a big spot.

Tyler Wells

Wells couldn’t decide between a pair of sliders he threw as a reliever in 2021.

The first struck out the Boston Red Sox’s Christian Vázquez that May, the catcher’s swing breaking down halfway through as he chased the ball down and away. In his three seasons, Wells has thrown only two pitches that moved more horizontally.

His other choice was a first-pitch whiff in an August matchup with Toronto Blue Jays shortstop Bo Bichette. Only two breaking balls in Wells’ career have been as hard with as much horizontal and downward movement.

“Both of them stick out to me just based on how they reacted, how it felt for me,” Wells said. “It’s one of those things where you’re like, ‘Oh yeah, that’s it. That’s it. I want to do that one again.’”

John Means

Given the prompt, Means responded, “It was probably a changeup at some point.” That has been his signature pitch in the majors, fueling an All-Star breakout in 2019 and a key in his 2021 no-hitter. The at-bat that stands out in his mind is the one during which he first established it as a legitimate weapon.

After making the Orioles’ opening day roster in 2019, Means made his season debut — and only his second major league appearance — in relief on the road against the New York Yankees. It began with a bases-load walk and a two-run single. Then he threw three straight changeups to 2017 National League Most Valuable Player Giancarlo Stanton and got three straight whiffs.

“I was like, ‘Whoa, this works. I don’t know where this came from. But this pitch plays in the big leagues,’” Means said.

Félix Bautista

Bautista’s repertoire features two immensely tough pitches to hit: the hardest fastball in franchise history and a splitter that hitters whiff against on more than half of their swings.

The pairing leaves batters with a dilemma, needing to react to the fastball but not get fooled by the splitter. Bautista’s favorite pitch is an example of the inverse: catching a hitter off guard with a fastball. His favorite case came last year against Los Angeles Angels superstar Mike Trout.

“I remember it because I feel like he was looking for a splitter,” Bautista said through team interpreter Brandon Quinones. “Since I located that fastball really well, I just froze him on it.”

Yennier Cano

Cano has formed a dynamic duo with Bautista at the back of Baltimore’s bullpen. His favorite pitch is similar to that of his late-inning partner.

Few pitches in baseball are better at producing ground balls than Cano’s sinker, but his favorite didn’t draw a swing. It struck out Randy Arozarena, the Tampa Bay Rays outfielder who has terrorized Baltimore in his career, looking.

“I think I’ve had a lot of good ones this year, but one in particular that I do remember is a sinker I threw to Arozarena,” Cano said through Quinones. “He didn’t even swing. He kind of just stayed surprised when I threw it.”

Cionel Pérez

Pérez also chose Arozarena as the victim of his best pitch.

With two on and the Orioles leading by one in the sixth inning last July, Pérez threw a full-count slider in the dirt, with Arozarena barely fouling it off and wagging a finger at his fellow Cuban. Pérez doubled down on the pitch, and Arozarena was again unable to resist and that time unable to make contact.

“It was just a really good sequence overall in that at-bat,” Pérez said through Quinones.

At the time, it was the hardest slider the left-hander has thrown for a swinging strikeout of a right-handed batter.

Dean Kremer

Kremer has pitched in relief only once in his major league career. The outing featured what he believes was his best pitch.

After activating Wells off the injured list last September, the Orioles had Kremer pitch in bulk behind him against the Blue Jays. For the second out of his first inning, Kremer got ahead 0-2 on Bichette and went to his changeup. The ball seemed ticketed for the bottom of the zone but nearly ended up in the dirt, with Bichette swinging over it for a strikeout. It was the lowest changeup Kremer has thrown to strike out a right-handed batter in his career.

“It fell off the table,” Kremer said.

Kyle Bradish

Late last season, as Yankees slugger Aaron Judge pursued his 62nd home run to set an American League record, he stepped in against Bradish with the bases loaded at Yankee Stadium. The rookie right-hander got ahead 0-2 on a pair of fouls, and after a ball outside, Bradish thought he had Judge struck out on an up-and-in sinker, with Judge’s effort to check his swing and dodge the pitch seeming to result in him going around. When first base umpire Dan Merzel ruled that Judge held up, Bradish mimicked the swing attempt back at him.

The next pitch is Bradish’s favorite. He settled in to get Judge to chase a curveball, with the eventual AL Most Valuable Player unable to check his swing this time.

“That was a big one,” Bradish said, “with that situation and what was going on at the time.”

Bryan Baker

Five innings after Bradish struck out Judge in a 2-2 count, Baker did the same, throwing an elevated 99 mph fastball past him. After what proved to be Judge’s final home at-bat of the regular season, Baker hopped up and down on the mound, a relatively low-key show of emotion from the fiery right-hander.

“Just because of the situation, how quiet that place was and the anticipation that everybody was having for him to hit a homer,” Baker said. “To be able to execute and get him out and not give up the homer, that’s probably my answer.”

Danny Coulombe

Coulombe prides himself on his ability to spin the ball, evidenced by his collection of breaking balls. One of them came to his mind.

In June 2017, the left-hander entered for the Oakland Athletics against the New York Yankees to face switch-hitter Chase Headley with two on and two outs. Ahead 0-2, he went to his curveball, the pitch darting down and toward Headley for the strikeout.

“It was the nastiest pitch I’ve probably thrown, as far as analytically,” Coulombe said. “It was an 83 [mph], and it moved more than it should have moved, let’s just put it that way. I’d probably say that one sticks out the most.”

Logan Gillaspie

Gillaspie went with a sentimental choice.

“Definitely the strikeout pitch last year for my first career strikeout,” he said.

He intended for the 96 mph fastball to New York’s Kyle Higashioka to stay on the outside part of the zone, but it “ran right back down in the middle.” Higashioka took it.

“It worked out,” Gillaspie said with a chuckle.

Bruce Zimmermann

The 2021 Orioles suffered through two losing streaks that lasted at least 14 games. Zimmermann thinks of a pitch that helped end the first.

Baltimore had gone more than two weeks without a victory when Zimmermann started against the Minnesota Twins on June 1, so even as the Orioles held a five-run lead, it felt at risk as 2015 AL MVP Josh Donaldson came up with two on and two outs in the fifth. Donaldson worked a full count before Zimmermann struck him out on a slider beneath the zone.

“We finally broke that awful losing streak,” he said.

Mike Baumann

“I threw a 103 mile-per-hour slider last year,” Baumann said, a wry smile spreading across his face.

Baumann throws the majors’ third-hardest slider, but 103 is well above his 91.6 mph average and a velocity that fastballs rarely reach. In fact, that’s the actual pitch type that Baumann used to open an at-bat against New York Yankees outfielder Tim Locastro in April 2022, a 97 mph four-seamer that was tracked incorrectly as a triple-digit slider.

“That was a misread,” Baumann said with a laugh, “but that’s the one I can think of.”

Keegan Akin

Akin’s mind goes to situations before stuff. He doesn’t remember what pitch he threw Nick Maton to leave the bases loaded in the 10th inning against the Detroit Tigers earlier this year, but he figures it must have been a good one if it got the out.

After the Orioles intentionally walked two right-handed batters to load the bases and get Akin a left-on-left matchup, he got Maton to pop up on an up-and-in fastball, having gotten him to swing through a similar pitch to open the at-bat. Baltimore walked it off in the bottom half.

Asked why he thinks situationally, Akin replied, “You can throw the nastiest pitch and still get taken over the wall with it, and you can throw the backup slider and strike a guy out.”

Twins at Orioles

Friday, 7:05 p.m.

TV: MASN2

Radio: 97.9 FM, 101.5 FM, 1090 AM

()