Back on July 22, we took a look at a few of Steven Wright’s life-destroying knuckleballs and concluded that Wright must not be human, must have six fingers, and probably shouldn’t be allowed to play the game of baseball.
Well that’s not really fair (or accurate (I didn’t actually say any of those things, you’re simply participating in the magic of online content – isn’t this fun?)), I guess, but neither are his pitches. Check out, for example, the absolutely mind-boggling knuckleball he threw to Lorenzo Cain over the weekend:
Steven Wright's lively Knuckleball + The Nastiest Pitching GIFs From This Weekend's Games https://t.co/l1eKIFPvg3 pic.twitter.com/RMv5c3HviE
— Pitcher List (@ThePitcherList) August 29, 2016
In case you can’t tell, catcher Sandy Leon can’t even track the pitch, as the ball lumbers past his glove and hits him square in the chest protector. Now, I know I couldn’t ever hit Major League pitching in general, but even if I closed my eyes and pretended, I can’t see how I’d ever manage to hit a ball that moves quite like that – it’s just so unpredictable.
Wright threw a total of 95 pitches on Friday, 82 of which were those 70 MPH knuckle balls (48 of which fell in for strikes). Other than that he only threw 8 fastballs and a handful of curveballs during the game. But hey, when you throw 83 MPH, even Dan Haren is feeling good about his velo.