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

Detroit’s Colt Keith led off the fifth by homering on an 0-2 cut fastball above the strike zone. — ABC News, 2 July 2026

Almost anyone who was at Petco Park four Octobers ago will remember the 488-foot shot Schwarber slammed off Yu Darvish’s cut fastball, as part of Philadelphia’s 2-0 win in Game 1 of the National League Championship Series. — Tom Krasovic, San Diego Union-Tribune, 26 May 2026

Curet threw a sinker that topped out at 98 mph in his final appearance of 2025, in addition to a cut fastball and a four-seamer. — Jon Paul Hoornstra, MSNBC Newsweek, 10 Dec. 2025

The right-hander has looked entirely different than a year ago in his brief stint in the big leagues, now complementing an outstanding split-finger pitch with a sinker and cut fastball instead of a four-seamer. — David O'Brien, New York Times, 21 Aug. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1970, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for cut fastball

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