In baseball, a pitch is the act of throwing a baseball toward home plate to start a play. Pitchers throw a variety of pitches, each one of which has a slightly different velocity, trajectory, movement and/or arm angle. These variations are introduced to confuse the batter in various ways, and ultimately aid the defensive team in getting the batter or baserunners out.

The pitch relies much on the seams of the ball. The seams catch the air and their motion is exaggerated or changed, making the ball more difficult to hit.

List of pitches

Fastballs

The fastball is the most common pitch in baseball, and almost all pitchers use some form of a fastball from time to time. At its simplest, it is a straight pitch thrown very fast. The cut fastball, split-finger fastball and forkball are variations on the fastball with extra movement. The most common fastball type pitches are:

• fastball
  • two-seam fastball
  • four-seam fastball
  • cut fastball
  • split-finger fastball
    • forkball
  • rising fastball

Breaking balls

Well-thrown breaking balls have movement—sideways or downward usually. The goal is usually to make the ball difficult to hit well or confusing to batters. Most breaking balls are considered off-speed pitches. The most common breaking pitches are:

• breaking ball
  • curveball
    • knuckle curve
    • slurve
  • sinker
  • slider
  • screwball
  • submarine (actually a pitching motion, not a distinct pitch type)

Changeups

The changeup is the staple off-speed pitch, usually thrown to look like a fastball but arriving much slower to the plate. It is meant to confuse the batter with timing. The most common changeups are:

• changeup
  • palm change
  • circle change

Others

Other pitches which are or have been used in baseball are:

• knuckleball
• Eephus pitch
• brushback and beanball
• spitball
• pitchout (not actually a pitch, but counts as one statistically)
• intentional ball

See also: Wild pitch