Twists and Turns

The White Sox signed veteran pitcher Johnny Cueto off the junk heap last month. After a few Triple-A starts, Cueto got a shot against the Royals Monday night, and, boy, did he deliver, six shutout innings with two hits and two walks against seven strikeouts. Cueto left with a 3-0 lead that reliever Kendall Graveman gave away in the eighth (Sox Win! Sox Win, in ten), and he’ll in all likelihood get another chance to see if he can repeat his first-start success. The 36-year old sure looked like a righthanded version of Nestor Cortes, who pitched eight innings of one-run ball in the Yankees’ 5-1 win over the Sox on Sunday. Cueto probably throws harder, but he and Cortes both like mixing it up. This arm angle becomes that arm angle, the latest windup discarded for another, just like Luis Tiant back in the day. Well, everything old is new again, or should be, especially in the power-arm game of baseball in the year 2022. Cueto and Cortes mess with a batter’s timing, the trick being not the gyrations on the mound so much as the ability to throw strikes anywhere in the zone. Do that, and you’ll drive the opposition crazy. Anything less is just nibbling. Now, if we could just get ourselves a good knuckleballer or two….