Cueto threw seven innings of three-hit, shutout baseball as the Reds blanked the Miami Marlins, 4-0. It was the first time Cincinnati has shut out its opponent on Opening Day in 32 years.
“It was just an outstanding performance,” said Baker. “He had great command of his pitches.”
“The young man has matured big-time before our eyes,” Baker continued. “He knows what he wants to do now. He doesn’t fight Johnny Cueto anymore. Before, his own worst enemy was probably himself.”
Several players echoed that thought and if you watched Cueto pitch his first few years here, you often saw how his great promise was submarined at some point in the season by his short-circuited thought or overheated reactions.
But before Cueto could ever get where he was supposed to go, he had to deal with where he had come from.
Six years ago, when he was playing for the Dayton Dragons, I remember sitting down with him one afternoon and with the help of the tutor who was trying to teach him English, he talked about his past.
He said growing up poor in San Pedro de Macoris, Dominican Republic, he played his first baseball with a tree branch as a bat and an old piece of leather tied together with shoestrings as a glove. He quit school in the ninth grade to pursue his dream, but got nowhere until some friends convinced Johnny Almaraz, the Reds director of player development/international operations to make a quick detour before boarding an early-morning flight out of Santo Domingo.
Cueto said Almaraz came to see him throw his fastball just past dawn one morning and was so taken he signed him on the spot. Although he got just a pittance compared to his American counterparts, that’s the way it was for most Dominican kids on their baseball-crazy island.
Within three seasons he was in Dayton, unable to speak the language, playing alongside college boys and guys who had signed for much more than he.
His equalizer, though, was his arm, and initially he thought he had to use it like a hammer.
Even when he first got to the big leagues in 2008, he had a reputation, said Reds new left-fielder Ryan Ludwick, the major-league veteran who was with St. Louis for most of Cueto’s first three Reds seasons:
“I think I only faced him three times, but (back then) you just looked for his heater. His command wasn’t good. When he was younger, he just tried to strike everybody out.”
If his repertoire was a little short, his temper — thanks to a nasty 2010 incident — seemed even shorter. He ended up suspended for seven games after kicking Cardinals pitcher Chris Carpenter and catcher Jason LaRue in a brawl. One spikes-first boot caught LaRue, who ended up with a concussion and later retired from the game.
Cueto eventually repaired his reputation and at the same time broadened his outlook on the mound. The changes were dramatic last season, when his 2.31 ERA was one of the best in MLB.
“Last year I really knew Cueto was gonna be one of the best pitchers in baseball,” said Reds second baseman Brandon Phillips. “He really learned it. He figured it out. He didn’t go out there and try to strike everybody out. He just went out and threw strikes and believed in his defense. And he showed that again today, too.”
Although no one quite came out and said it, some of his emergence might have something to do with the departure of his pal and fellow Dominican pitcher Edinson Volquez, who came to the team with impressive credentials but eventually faltered, was bounced to the minor leagues and finally was traded in the offseason to San Diego with three other players for pitcher Mat Latos.
“Cueto has matured as a pitcher the last couple of years.” said right fielder Jay Bruce, who homered Thursday. “When he and Edinson were together they had great stuff, but they seemed like they just cared about striking guys out.
“Johnny is pitching now. He really knows what he wants to do. He’s really taking control of the game and focusing on outs instead of just striking guys out. That’s gonna help us a ton.”
Veteran pitcher Bronson Arroyo said the gradual learning curve is understandable:
“When you get to the big league level – no matter where you’ve played – you never know how your stuff is gonna shake out. Over time you realize , ‘My stuff is pretty good. My slider’s good. I can throw hard. I can sink it.’ And pretty soon you realize you have a lot more room for error than you thought you had when you got here. You get confidence in who you are and what you can do. That’s happened to him,”
When an interpreter told him of some of the clubhouse psychoanalyzing going on, Cueto chuckled and didn’t dispute it.
That’s a victory in itself. And with an attitude like that there will be a lot more this season, Phillips said:
If he keeps this up – there’s a lot of Cy Young talk going around – and I’ll give him that. I give people credit when it’s due.”
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