Trevor Bauer reveals his “most satisfying pitch” to finish off batters

Former MLB pitcher Trevor Bauer made his return to Nippon Professional Baseball after a year of absence. While he was away, his Yokohama DeNA BayStars went on a Cinderella run to claim what was the biggest upset win in Japan Series history. Not to be outdone, he won the 2024 Mexican League Pitcher of the Year and the Series Del Rey with the Diablos Rojos del Mexico in LMB.

Now that he's back in Yokohama, he has often posted about his experiences and excerpts from his time in NPB.

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In a recent video that was posted on X, the ex-MLB star described the "most satisfying pitch" to strikeout hitters.

"I've thrown a lot of pitches and gotten a lot of strikeouts, but there's three that shine through the rest of them — and the last one is my favorite," said Bauer. (0:06-0:08)

The former All-Star first noted his curve ball that he utilizes to strike out batters.

"Let's start with the curveball. [It has] high-spin and tight axis. [It] bends into the zone and tunnels of my fastball at release. If [the batters] are sitting heat, they got no shot at hitting it. I'll get guys to chase it in the dirt, or even leave them frozen with their bat still on their shoulder." (0:09-0:21)

Bauer then shared his splitter for his second pitch. He stated that he favors it as it is similar to his fastball but dips harder when it reaches the plate. Finally, he revealed that his most preferred pitch to punch out hitters is his fastball.

"[My four-seam fastball] will gear up to do damage and swing through, or even freeze [batters] while 96 MPH flies by them. You can almost hear the punch out before the ball hits the glove." (0:50-0:58)

Trevor Bauer suffers fourth loss of the season

The Yokohama DeNA BayStars couldn't supply the run support needed behind Trevor Bauer's respectable outing as they surrendered a 3-0 loss to the Saitama Seibu Lions at home, Tuesday night in Japan.

The former Cy Young winner pitched 8 1/3 innings while giving up just three runs on seven base hits with 10 strikeouts as he incurred his fourth loss in 12 starts. He now holds a 4-4 record with a 3.26 ERA.

Lions ace Tatsuya Imai made history in the game by tallying the most strikeouts ever thrown in a game in the franchise's history with 17 K's. Imai surpassed the record that was set by former World Series champion Daisuke Matsuzaka on September 1, 2004.

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The two-time NPB All-Star finished with a complete game shutout having given up just two hits with no walks on 123 pitches.

About the author

Daniel Santiago is a journalist who has been reporting on baseball at Sportskeeda since 2022. He was drawn towards the sport after the underlying statistics and the analysis surrounding it grabbed his attention.

Daniel particularly enjoys furnishing reports about historic events in baseball and analyzing the game through a statistic-based outlook, based on Fangraphs and Baseball-Reference. This is in line with how he enjoyed watching baseball as a pastime. As a writer, he is very particular about cross-checking from reputable sources and doing his due diligence.

He became a lifelong Hideki Matsui fan after his exploits in the 2009 World Series for the New York Yankees. Among the current generation, Daniel's favorites include Shohei Ohtani and Jung Hoo Lee. Daniel is a huge follower of Asian baseball and both Ohtani and Lee have been in the top echelon of their respective leagues during their time with the NPB and KBO.

His favorite moment as a baseball fan was the final at-bat of the 2023 World Baseball Classic between Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout. He believes there aren't many words to fittingly describe the intensity of the moment.

As an avid sports fan, Daniel watches other sports and Esports when not writing about baseball.

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Edited by Daniel Santiago