Christopher Morel’s big-league career was born on a 3-2 pitch at Wrigley Field, with the crowd on its feet and a dugout full of Cubs clapping their hands and slapping railings in expectant rhythm, as if they knew what was coming.
It was Morel’s first at-bat, on May 17, 2022, with Pirates reliever Chase De Jong on the mound and the Cubs in front 6-0 in the eighth inning. De Jong’s sixth pitch was a fastball, middle-middle, and Morel turned it into the single most electric moment of a rebuilding season. As the ball screamed through the night toward its destination on Waveland Avenue, the 23-year-old Dominican utilityman flipped his bat and shuffled sideways up the first-base line, eventually making a 360-degree turn before missing the bag — rookie move — and having to double back to step on it. After his long, giddy, glorious round trip, Willson Contreras pushed him from the dugout to bask in a curtain call.
