How often do you see an umpire immediately apologize to a player following a bad call? Well, that’s what appeared to happen during Tuesday night’s game between the Cubs and Orioles as home plate umpire Stu Scheurwater apologized to Christopher Morel after a bad strikeout call.
Morel took a 2-2 sinker that was below the knees from Orioles starter Dean Kremer that Scheurwater called strike three. The umpire then had a chat with Morel at the plate and it seemed like he kind of apologized?
It’s been that kind of season for Morel.
The 25-year-old began the year with a six-game hitting streak and had a hit in 10 of the first 11 games. However, since April 10, Morel is only slashing .179/.296/.330, which comes out to an 82 wRC+.
Morel will have a couple good games, but he just can’t get on any extended hot streaks. His infield hit against the Orioles Tuesday night did extend Morel’s hit streak to five games, but now Morel is slumping in a different way. He’s still not hitting for much power and the strikeouts are starting to climb.
A big area of improvement from his previous two seasons was that Morel cut down his strikeout rate by 10 percent, but for the past three weeks Morel’s strikeout rate is back up to 31%. Dating back to June 19, Morel has struck out 22 times in 70 plate appearances, while only slashing .200/.314/.333.
So far in July, Morel has struck out 12 times with only 1 walk and one extra base hit, a double during Sunday’s 5-0 win against the Los Angeles Angels.
Meanwhile, Morel’s time at third base seems to be decreasing. He’s started six games in July, but four have come as the DH and only two at third base.
Unfortunately, Morel isn’t the only Cubs player who desperately needs the All-Star break to reset. Cody Bellinger has been a below average hitter since May 11, posting a 92 wRC+ since May 11, hitting only 2 home runs and slugging .349 in his last 230 plate appearances.
Bellinger has not homered since June 12.
It looked like Dansby Swanson started to turn a corner in June, but the last couple weeks have been atrocious. The Cubs shortstop is slashing .106/.176/.128, with 21 strikeouts in his previous 51 plate appearances. Big yikes.
