SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — Called in to finish off what closer Jason Isringhausen started, it took Jess Todd only three pitches to assert his ownership of the game.

Isringhausen threw his 22nd pitch to get his fifth out of his rehab start and then turned the game over to the Todd, the scheduled starter for Wednesday’s Class AA game at Hammons Field. Todd, the Springfield Cardinals’ supernova prospect, threw three consecutive cut fastballs to Arkansas’ Corey Smith. Smith didn’t have a chance.

He whiffed at an 89-mph cutter that snapped away and out of the zone.

A few scouts I was sitting with nodded; one said: “That’s pretty good.”

“He’s been like that since he got here,” manager Pop Warner said. “If anything, tonight he wasn’t as on as he has been.”

Todd finished the game, a 6-1 victory, throwing the final 7 1/3 innings and allowing one run (it was unearned). The righthander, taken in the second round of last summer’s draft, struck out six and walked two. He allowed five hits. To drop his Texas League ERA to 0.83 in seven starts at the level, Todd threw just 83 pitches and 17 of the 20 balls put in play were … yes, on the ground. Of the 63 fastballs he threw, 44 were strikes. Of the 18 sliders he threw, 15 were strikes. He said he only threw five sinkers in the game because it was flat.

And because with a cutter like he has, he didn’t need it.

Drafted out of the University of Arkansas just days after a record-setting, 17-strikeout start in SEC Tournament, Todd has ransacked two leagues this season with his combination of sinking and cutting fastballs. Todd pitched well enough in his first month of High-A ball that the Florida State League selected him as an All-Star. He’s pitched well enough in the past month for Springfield, that the Texas League named him an All-Star, too. With the All-Star Game at Hammons Field here this summer, there’s a good chance Todd will be the starter — after starting the year a level lower.

Two months. Two leagues. Two All-Star selections.

Not too far away from that third league.

“I’ve just got to keep putting up numbers here,” Todd said after his win.

To think it started with a simple shift of the fingers.

During this past winter, Todd was working out with his Arkansas buddy, catcher Brian Walker (who also happens to be the A-Travs’ catcher in tonight’s game). Todd threw your standard, garden-variety four-seam fastball as a college kid. He’d just chuck it up there at a velocity good enough to thrive. Walker suggested he try something new — shift the ball in his fingers. “Just a little bit,” Todd said, “so much that if I showed you, your probably wouldn’t even be able to tell.” He threw it a few times. Liked the late movement.

And his cutter was born. 

Todd (2-1) threw his cut fastball consistently at 89 mph on Wednesday night, and it topped out at 92 mph. He threw his slider in the 83 mph-84 mph range. The four-seam fastball has velocity and a late break away from the righthander. He can take a little off and get a wipe-away slider for a hitter to chase. The Cardinals have also worked with him on a sinker, so now he can paint both sides of the plate with his fastball.

“The night we took a no-hitter through 6 2/3 innings in Corpus (Christi), he had it all working,” catcher Matt Pagnozzi said. “When he’s able to throw all of it for strikes, he’s got that kind of stuff. So many of his pitches have that late action.”

Warner said he knew very little about Todd before he arrived.

“I heard he was a bulldog,” Warner said.

He’s quickly learned that Todd is also a quick study. As Warner describes, Todd reads hitters and their swings and adjusts from inning to inning. On Wednesday, he worked Smith away with three cutters. He did that with tremendous success early in the game, and then he noticed the Travelers were cheating to the outside, leaning out over the plate to whip the cutter or poke it the other way.

Todd shifted and started firing it inside.

When he’s able to work with both his sinker and his cutter on the inside of the plate to righthanded hitters he gains the benefit of deception. The pitches look alike, come of his hand the same way, and one breaks down and the other bites away. It’s part of why Todd has attracted so much attention as a rapid-riser in the organization — a safe bet to start that All-Star Game in Double-A and possibly finish the season Triple-A.

“He could get better control of his fastball, a little better,” Warner said. “There’s always room to improve. This game is about always improving, no matter what level. But when you talk about how he could improve, you’re really splitting hairs with him.”

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