In a scary moment, Johnny Cueto fell hard on his side after delivering a pitch against the Philadelphia Phillies on Friday night. After getting checked out, he stayed in the game.
There are a lot of fun facts from the first 70 Giants games, but few are better than this one: Johnny Cueto, a pitcher who moves at his own pace on the mound, has one of the 50 fastest sprints by any Giant this season.
On April 14, Cueto put a sacrifice bunt down against the Cincinnati Reds and sniffed a base hit. He busted it down the line at 28.6 feet per second, which comes in between the MLB average (27 f/s) and elite territory (30). Cueto was thrown out by a step, but that dash to first ranks him ahead of the peak speeds of most of his teammates this season.
In the fourth inning Friday, Cueto once again got an opportunity to shift into another gear, and he did it in a hilarious way. Cueto drew a walk with two outs in the fourth and LaMonte Wade Jr. followed with a liner to deep center. Cueto took off, tossing his helmet to the side after a couple of steps.
Stay in the game with the latest updates on your beloved Bay Area and California sports teams! Sign up here for our All Access Daily newsletter.
Cueto got from first to home in 11.67 seconds, a solid time, especially for a pitcher. Most importantly, he wasn't gassed from scoring the go-ahead run. He had a shutdown inning in the top of the fifth.
Of course, there are many times when Cueto doesn't hit the gas. He truly does go at his own pace.