Zac Gallen had the hitter admittedly shocked after throwing a silly cut-changeup off the ump's mask

The Arizona Diamondbacks are off to a surprisingly hot start this season, and the excellent pitching from Zac Gallen is a huge reason why.

The right-hander recorded double-digit strikeouts for a second consecutive start, striking out 12 in 6.1 innings against the Kansas City Royals on Wednesday. But one pitch in particular stood out.

The Royals’ Vinnie Pasquantino had no problem admitting as much.

During the sixth inning, Gallen threw a 1-1 pitch to Pasquantino that must have been a mistake. The pitch — an 83.5 mph cut-changeup — seemingly had a mind of its own and evaded both Pasquantino’s bat and Jose Herrera’s glove on its way to umpire Edwin Jimenez’s mask.

Zac Gallen's accidental Cut Change (7" of cut) fooled everyone…including Zac. pic.twitter.com/i3kkmZ1cOL

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) April 27, 2023

You could see that Gallen was even surprised about what that pitch did as it was an obvious outlier in terms of movement for every other changeup he’s thrown.

Look at how much different the movement was on this changeup vs. the other 1,298 Zac Gallen has thrown in the big leagues https://t.co/KVMnfeiBDx pic.twitter.com/oxhnyfhK8D

— Codify (@CodifyBaseball) April 27, 2023

Pasquantino ended up striking out in the at-bat, but after the game, he couldn’t stop thinking about that pitch. He called it the craziest pitch he had ever seen.

This was quite possibly the craziest pitch I’ve ever seen. I’ve never been more confused in my life. Was it a cutter? Was it a change up? Somehow it was both

— Vinnie Pasquantino (@VPasquantino) April 27, 2023

If a big-league hitter was confused with that pitch, just imagine how fans felt. It was mesmerizing.