FROM THE NYTIMES – 7-4-2010

“And then, as if that weren’t enough, came the second providential episode of Rivera’s career — the Miracle of the Cut Fastball. Rivera has said that the cutter simply appeared one day in 1997, like a divine visitation. He threw the fastball, and it cut. Girardi, however, says that Rivera already had the cutter, if in embryonic form, in 1996, when Girardi joined the team as a catcher. It is a matter of purely historical significance. A cutter is a fastball that, rather than rising or sinking, as most fastballs do, stays on a level plane but breaks sharply away from the pitcher’s throwing hand; when thrown by a right-hander like Rivera, for example, it jams a left-handed hitter and rides away from a righty. “Here’s the deal,” the Yankees’ batting coach, Kevin Long, says. “The ball’s coming in, and you’re thinking it’s going to be right here.” He motions over the plate. “So you start to swing, and it ends up here — inside. You might know it’s going to cut, but you can’t really see it until the last minute, when it takes off.” Long estimates that Rivera’s cutter moves six to eight inches.

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