MIAMI -- The beginning of Christopher Morel’s Marlins tenure hasn’t gone as he and the organization envisioned.
Signed to a one-year deal in mid-December to be a middle-of-the-order threat, Morel instead entered mid-May with no extra-base hits and no RBIs.
Check one of those off the list, as Morel knocked the go-ahead RBI single in the eighth inning of the Marlins’ 5-2 win over the Nationals on Sunday afternoon at loanDepot park.
With the series victory, the Marlins (19-22) caught up to the Nationals (19-22) in the National League East standings and concluded their season-long 10-game homestand with a 4-6 record.
“The best feeling of all is actually being able to help the team with something,” Morel said via interpreter Luis Dorante Jr.
With the game tied at 2 in the eighth, Kyle Stowers and Jakob Marsee walked with one out against righty Gus Varland. Esteury Ruiz, who pinch-ran for Stowers, and Marsee executed a double steal with Morel at the plate on the second pitch of the at-bat.
Morel flared the next pitch, an 0-2 slider at the bottom of the zone, in front of center fielder Jacob Young for the decisive hit and his first RBI as a Marlin. Afterward, he credited teammates Connor Norby and Heriberto Hernández for coming up clutch.
“They got close to me before the at-bat, and they were telling me, ‘Keep trusting’ myself, to ‘keep swinging, because swinging is the only way that you can make something happen,’” Morel said. “And that's what I did. I went out there and swung the bat.”
The 26-year-old Morel had gotten off to a slow start with his new club, beginning with an Opening Day scratch hours before first pitch and an injured list stint with a left oblique strain. Since returning on April 28, he hasn’t played consistently.
After learning to play first base during Spring Training, Morel has been bouncing between there and designated hitter. With Liam Hicks blossoming into one of the NL’s top batters, Connor Norby doing enough to get looks and Marlins No. 4 prospect Joe Mack being called up, there are fewer first-base and DH reps to go around.
It also didn’t help that Morel had been 4-for-27 (.148) with two walks and 11 strikeouts entering the eighth-inning plate appearance.
“Christopher is a great teammate,” manager Clayton McCullough said. “It's something we knew when we signed him this offseason. Everybody you talk to that has been around Chris, he just brings a ton of life to the club. He's always ready. And he's told me many times, like, ‘Just whatever you need me for.’
“When you come back, it's easy to try to press the panic button a little bit and want things to happen quickly. Just got to hang in there and just kind of keep taking good at-bats. I'm going to continue to give him an opportunity to try to get into a rhythm and go, because he does have the ability to slug from the right side.”
Hernández followed Morel with a two-run single to end a nine-pitch at-bat, finishing 2-for-4 in a game he wasn’t supposed to start until Owen Caissie was scratched with left triceps soreness. Hernández, who was recalled from Triple-A Jacksonville on Thursday as the corresponding roster move for a struggling Graham Pauley, was in need of a big hit as well.
Postgame, Hernández acknowledged that being sent down was a move the club needed to make. At the time, he had a .474 OPS. His timing was off, impacting his ability to pull the ball for power.
“In the back of my head, [I was thinking] that I was not able to bring that run in my first at-bat,” Hernández said via Dorante. “So in that at-bat, I truly gave 100% of everything I’ve got, and I knew that with good contact, I have power, I was going to be able to bring the run in.”
So far this season, the Marlins have relied heavily on the trio of Hicks, Otto Lopez and Xavier Edwards. While those three combined for two hits and two RBIs in the series finale, production coming from elsewhere bodes well for the Marlins moving forward. Over the weekend, Miami also saw Marsee and Stowers show signs of breaking out.
“The guys have been going so good, [but] they can't do this forever, and they'll still be good, but some other guys are going to have to contribute,” McCullough said. “We saw the difference in it today with what they were able to do.”