Baltimore Orioles closer Félix Bautista is just about as close as it gets to an unhittable pitcher in Major League Baseball. All it takes is one look at Bautista’s splitter to see why.
Bautista entered Sunday’s game against the Rays with a ridiculous 0.94 ERA, 27 saves and 17.4 strikeouts per nine innings. He’s been unreal this year, and his scoreless ninth inning against the Rays made for one of the cooler videos we’ll see this season.
Facing Josh Lowe with one on in the ninth inning, Bautista got way ahead in the count with three straight fastballs around triple digits. And with Lowe just looking to stay alive in the at-bat, Bautista struck him out with an 0-2 splitter that basically defied gravity.
Félix Bautista, 546 RPM Butterfly Splitter 🦋 pic.twitter.com/f9xEtk7gT5
— Codify (@CodifyBaseball) July 23, 2023
It shouldn’t be possible for anyone to throw a baseball 89 mph with *that* grip, but Bautista is just that good. His fastball also topped off at 101.4 mph on Sunday.
In slow motion, you can almost see the precise moment where the ball changed its trajectory and just collapsed low and outside. There’s nothing Lowe could’ve done with that pitch. The pitch looked like a strike and then just disappeared.
No wonder MLB fans were in awe of that splitter. The replay captured it perfectly.