Somewhere between first and second base, Christopher Morel tossed his helmet windmill-style in euphoric celebration.
By the time he sprinted around third, as a mob of his Chicago Cubs teammates and coaches awaited him at home plate, Morel had ripped off his jersey and left it in his dust. His three-run, walk-off homer sparked bedlam at Wrigley Field, where 40,869 fans watched the Cubs pull out a 4-3 win over the White Sox in the final game of the City Series.
One thought flitted through Morel’s mind during his mad dash around the bases: “I hit a home run — Cubs win!”
David Ross started high-fiving bench coach Andy Green when his manager brain kicked in, making sure Morel touched every base.
Second baseman Nico Hoerner’s stomach hurt from laughing while watching Morel’s exuberance and his soccer move to pull off his jersey.
“I couldn’t believe what I was watching in front of me,” Hoerner said, “but for anyone that knows him well, it was all really genuine. … Couldn’t have written it any better.”
The biggest hit in Morel’s young career embodied the late-inning fight the Cubs often have displayed. The at-bat against Sox closer Gregory Santos also highlighted Morel’s offensive development. A day before, Santos bested Morel with a three-pitch strikeout to start the ninth inning of a Sox victory.
Cody Bellinger’s leadoff double and a Dansby Swanson walk set up Morel’s heroics. He quickly fell behind 0-2, whiffing at a 100.5 mph inside sinker and chasing a low-and-away slider. Santos and catcher Yasmani Grandal went back to the slider away, but Morel didn’t chase.
Morel pounced on the next pitch, a sinker left down the middle, to dramatically avenge his Tuesday strikeout. Echoing the advice he received last year from former teammate Willson Contreras, Morel reminded himself to “stay in the eye of the hurricane” when he fell behind in the count.
“Just try to make the moment just about me,” Morel said through an interpreter. “Just think about what I’m doing in that moment. Don’t think about anything else, focus in the moment and focus on myself.”
Morel’s ability to seize the opportunity didn’t surprise Hoerner, who first played alongside him in 2018 at short-season Eugene.
“It’s the same guy at the heart of it with his energy and electricity,” Hoerner told the Tribune. “It’s amazing how far he’s come and how much it seems like the big moments almost calm him down in some ways — and then he explodes of course. But his ability to swing and miss or chase and then move on to the next pitch, that speaks to where he’s at mentally. He’s been a huge part of our success.”
Morel’s walk-off homer was the first by the Cubs since Jason Heyward’s on Sept. 8, 2021.
“You have adrenaline and you have those moments when you’re on the big stage and you’ve got a chance to do something special to change the game, and he harnesses that emotion so much better every time out it feels like,” Ross said. “He doesn’t always get the big hit, but he just seems to be maturing and controlling the strike zone and putting his best swing on the pitches he’s looking for.
“When he’s swinging the bat well, our offense rolls.”
The homer saved the Cubs (62-58) from a bad loss and a two-game series sweep by the Sox, and the victory moved them into a three-way tie with the Cincinnati Reds and Miami Marlins through Wednesday for the final National League wild-card spot.
The maturation of Morel’s plate discipline over the course of the season has seen the 24-year-old bounce back within a plate appearance when it appears wild swings have him headed toward an easy out.
The walk-off sequence would not have happened without Javier Assad’s quality start (six innings, three runs, two earned) keeping them in the game or right-hander Michael Fulmer’s best appearance of the season. Called into the game with no outs and the bases loaded in the top of the eighth, Fulmer struck out Luis Robert Jr., Yoán Moncada and Andrew Vaughn on 11 pitches to get out of the jam.
“He swings so hard, that’s intimidating already on a pitcher,” Fulmer said of Morel, “and knowing the fact that he resets himself after a bad swing, a good swing, it doesn’t matter, each pitch is a new pitch for him. Whether it’s 1-2 like tonight or 0-0, he’s going to give it his all.”
Nick Madrigal put the Cubs on the board in the eighth to cut the Sox lead to 3-1 with a basket shot to left for his second home run of the year. Another little moment that added up to one big swing.
“You can feel there’s something brewing in this clubhouse,” Madrigal said. “Games like this, to pull those out when it wasn’t looking good for most of the game, lets me know you’ve got a special team that wins these kinds of games.”
