CHICAGO — It’s one thing to end up on Pitching Ninja with a nasty pitch.

It’s quite another to throw a pitch so filthy that everybody watching — including the announcers — share the same reaction:

“What the heck was that?!”

Chicago Cubs rookie right-hander Cade Horton accomplished both feats during his outing Tuesday night, in the best start of his young career.

Horton struck out six Colorado Rockies across his six-plus innings, but two of his pitches had the baseball world scratching its collective head.

Horton’s fastball Tuesday night had some uncanny tail on it — to the point where two separate Rockies hitters swung at a pitch that was close to hitting them. That type of reaction typically is reserved for wicked breaking balls, but Horton threw one pitch at 96 mph and another at 94.

[Cade Horton breaks down his eye-popping fastball in exclusive interview]

Horton’s fastballs moved so much that Pitching Ninja’s Rob Friedman made an entire TikTok about it. And Marquee Sports Network broadcasters Jon “Boog” Sciambi and Jim Deshaies were befuddled, trying to explain how Horton generated such incredible movement.

In the top of the third inning, Horton’s 96-mph mind-bender got former Cub Nick Martini on a swinging strikeout, and Sciambi and Deshaies reacted accordingly.

“How ’bout the action on that pitch?” Deshaies said.

“Wow!” Sciambi exclaimed.

“Looked like a breaking ball, but it was a fastball,” Deshaies added. “Ninety-six mph. I don’t know if this is intentional or not [chuckles].”

“What is that?!” Sciambi asked. “JD, I was watching it on the monitor, and when I looked to see what it ended up being, I was surprised it was a four-seam fastball. I thought it was going to be a cutter or a slider.”

Later in the outing, Horton threw another nasty pitch, getting Rockies third baseman Ryan McMahon to whiff on a fastball that was way inside.

“There’s that crazy four-seamer again,” Deshaies said. “A lot of lateral movement.”

“What is that?” Sciambi wondered for the second time.

“It’s a four-seam fastball, and I don’t know if he’s cutting it or he’s just getting around the side of it,” Deshaies said.

“Look at the rotation on it,” Sciambi added. “It has cutter spin on it.”

Horton was the Cubs’ top pitching prospect for a reason, and we’re receiving a firsthand look at his nasty stuff in the big leagues.

Lance Brozdowski provided a full breakdown of Horton on the Cubs Daily Podcast: