cut fastball

noun

baseball

: a fastball thrown with sideways spin so that it moves laterally as it nears the plate

… his best pitches are a baffling splitter and a cut fastball that bores in on right-handed hitters.

—Rob Neyer

called also cutter

Examples of cut fastball in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Are the fundamental statistics that convinced the Red Sox to cut fastball usage now thrown on their head by hitters just flipping the script and hunting sliders instead? —Eno Sarris, The Athletic, 20 Aug. 2024

Clase threw his hundred-mile-an-hour cut fastball, and Judge lined it over the right-field wall. —Nicholas Dawidoff, The New Yorker, 26 Oct. 2024

Working with the Dodgers’ analysts and coaches, Kopech has been throwing a cut fastball rather than a slider to complement his triple-digit fastball. —Phil Rogers, Forbes, 24 Oct. 2024

Facing right-hander Reed Garrett in the fifth, Pages drove a 1-and-1 cut fastball on the inner half of the plate 376 feet for a three-run homer, cutting the Mets’ lead to 10-5. —Mike Digiovanna, Los Angeles Times, 19 Oct. 2024

Weaver changed his approach during the season, eliminating his slider and curve to utilize a cut fastball more. —Chuck Murr, Forbes, 11 Oct. 2024

Buehler minimized damage by striking out Brendan Rodgers and Sam Hilliard swinging at 92-mph cut fastballs with runners on second and third. —Mike Digiovanna, Los Angeles Times, 22 Sep. 2024

Advertisement But Pages fought off an inside cut fastball and fisted his fourth single of the night, his game-winner traveling all of 205 feet with an exit velocity of 63.4 mph but perfectly placed to spark a wild celebration with teammates in the infield. —Mike Digiovanna, Los Angeles Times, 4 May 2024

Leaning mostly on a four-seamer that averaged 95.2 mph, an 81-mph curve and an 86-mph cut fastball, Paxton went 5-1 with a 3.00 ERA over nine starts in June and July, striking out 53 and walking 13 in 51 innings and yielding a .203 average and a .589 on-base-plus-slugging percentage. —Mike Digiovanna, Los Angeles Times, 2 Mar. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1970, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for cut fastball

• aerosol
• alcohol
• arbitral
• basketball
• butanol
• cannonball
• carbinol
• catarrhal
• cortisol
• ethanol
• fireball
• gasohol