If All Curveballs Were Like This Jhoan Duran Pitch, Nobody Would Ever Get A Hit

"The movement on that thing!" one viewer wrote as the Minnesota Twins closer amazed with an epic curveball.
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Minnesota Twins closer Jhoan Duran has been called “baseball’s most overpowering reliever.” But the pitcher occasionally uncorks a pitch or two that amazes fans already familiar with his filthy stuff. (Watch the video below.)

In a two-pitch clip shared by Pitching Ninja’s Rob Friedman, Duran struck out the Washington Nationals’ Luis Garcia on Sunday with a 102-mile-an-hour fastball that looked like it swerved through a time warp. Then he got Keibert Ruiz to swing and miss on a 92-mile-an-hour curveball from hell.

The break on the pitch left the batter “so rattled, that he took an automatic strike [on a clock violation] before he could see a second pitch,” USA Today’s For the Win reported. “Curveballs are not supposed to move like that with that kind of velocity.”

Ruiz eventually grounded out to end the game with the host Twins on top, 3-1.

Duran, 25, from the Dominican Republic, earned his fifth save of the season and plenty of praise from awestruck fans. “The movement on that thing!” one wrote. “Looks like something from a video game,” another commented.

One person was really moved: “I literally moaned out loud watching this.”

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