This story was excerpted from Christina De Nicola’s Marlins Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

SAN DIEGO -- Remember how the Marlins “just kept swimming” during the 2023 season?

Whenever a player got a hit, both the batter and the players in the dugout imitated the motion of a fish in water in celebration.

But through the first month or so of the 2024 season, riding the wave wasn’t having quite the same effect, as Miami got off to a slow start. So three weeks ago, ace Sandy Alcantara, who is rehabbing from Tommy John surgery but is still traveling with the club, spoke with Josh Bell and Tim Anderson about changing up the celebration.

For whatever reason, rock, paper, scissors came to Alcantara’s mind, even though he didn’t play it growing up in the Dominican Republic. Something seems to have clicked. Despite the series loss in San Diego, Miami has gone 10-6 since May 12.

“Now we are in a very good position and we've got to keep doing it,” Alcantara said. “We've been doing good, so we’re trying to be more focused on the game, trying to support our teammates and we’ve just got to keep it up.”

According to Alcantara, the Marlins’ game of rock, paper, scissors follows a base hit -- anything from a single, double, triple or home run -- but not a walk. The batter will look into the dugout and play against his teammates who are paying attention.

By an unofficial tally, Bryan De La Cruz appears to be atop the leaderboard, then Bell and Jazz Chisholm Jr. Alcantara wondered whether it was time to start keeping track.

“I was rock at first, but now I've been going scissors,” Bell said. “We were getting our butts kicked with [the old celebration], and then we brought out the rock, paper, scissors and kind of turned things around. Because it wasn't us. It was the celebration.”

All kidding aside, Bell might’ve taken the lead after Wednesday’s 9-1 victory over the Padres at Petco Park, where seven Marlins recorded multiple hits. Nick Gordon was quick to point out Bell’s performance against his former club: He collected seven hits, including three doubles, in three games.