The biggest takeaway from Kirby's start was a new cutter. Kirby threw the cutter just 11 times out of 2,967 total pitches in 2024, according to Baseball Savant. Kirby is already one of the best ...

But a cutter could help Kirby reverse two tendencies that came to a head last August when he gave up three homers per nine innings and had an ERA near seven and everyone wondered what was going on.

From the blade-throwing Cutter to the hard-pounding Stone, the prickly-bodied Needle to the electrifying Spark nearly all of Kirby's classic transformations owe their origin to this late 1992 NES ...