During Sean Marshall’s nine-year career, his primary form of preparation for outings came from watching video of his opponent with a specific twist.

“I’d watch previous at-bats of hitters facing pitchers that were comparable to me,” Marshall said on Marquee Sports Network’s Cubs Live! pregame show.

That meant digging through video to find left-handed hurlers with a feel for spin — like the Cubs starting pitcher Wednesday night, Jon Lester. Marshall broke down four of the Tigers hitters pregame as if he was the Cubs’ southpaw.

He started with Jonathan Schoop, a hitter who has feasted on pitches middle-middle and middle-in dating back to last season (heatmap).

“Lester’s bread and butter is the hard-inside cutter,” Marshall said. 

Marshall referenced multiple pitches from Dallas Keuchel’s August 10 outing against the Tigers where the southpaw kept the right-hander off base three times and induced one double-play. Keuchel threw more than 50% cutters to Schoop in that game, with many of those targeted on Schoop’s hands. 

This exact approach manifested in the fourth-inning jam Lester maneuvered out of. In Lester’s second matchup against Schoop, he threw six pitches, five of which were cutters. When his third encounter rolled around, he went back to the cutter twice on the inner third of the plate and got Schoop to flare a pitch to center field for the third out.

Marshall also dove into Jeimer Candelario and rookie Isaac Paredes, but what his approach would have been to Miguel Cabrera came with evidence from Danny Duffy limiting the future Hall of Famer to an 0-for-3 day on July 29. Cabrera has continually produced weak contact on pitches away but also those inside (heatmap).

“Duffy pounds [his cutter] inside and doesn’t let Cabrera extend his arms,” Marshall said.

This too resembled Lester’s approach to Cabrera in Wednesday’s start, particularly in the fifth inning. After failing to retire Cabrera twice, Lester started the righty with a curveball before turning to two cutters and inducing a line out to right field.

Lester’s day finished with 93 pitches, 46 of which were cutters (49%). On average in 2020, Lester has thrown 31% cutters, making Wednesday’s outing a cutter-heavy success against a Tigers lineup that has surprised the league through the midway point of the season.

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