Christopher Morel lost his cool vs. Angels, and it all started with Zack Hample

It has been a bit of a frustrating start to the 2025 season for Christopher Morel, and somehow, things only got more frustrating for him on Tuesday. The 25-year-old was held without an extra-base hit entering Tuesday's contest against the Los Angeles Angels and somehow, on a night when he finally recorded his first extra-base hit of the year, several things happened that heightened Morel's early-season frustration.

Morel's extra-base hit came on a swing he felt was good enough to result in a home run. Batting in the seventh inning against Ben Joyce in a game the Tampa Bay Rays trailed by one, Morel launched a ball he was sure was going to get over the wall. He was so sure, in fact, to the point that he stared the ball down, chucked his bat away, and let out a loud yell before realizing the ball was not, in fact, a home run.

Rays manager Kevin Cash couldn't be clearer when discussing Morel's gaffe, saying “It can't happen. It can’t happen.”

In his next at-bat, in a prime opportunity to break a tie, Morel struck out and responded to that frustration by slamming his bat with fury. Sure enough, he was immediately ejected from the game. He spoke about his ejection after the game.

“I've been battling since the first inning, and the pitches, they were not in the zone. And I had that in my head,” Morel said through a translator, h/t MLB.com. “I was just trying to help the team, and I was trying to put the ball in play, and I should have done a little bit better. … After I thought [about] what I did, it was surprising for me too, because that's not who I am. That's not part of my character.”

As frustrating as these at-bats were for Morel, perhaps the most infuriating part of his evening came back in the second inning. Of course, notorious ball hawk Zack Hample was right in the middle of that, catching a home run ball that Morel could have come down with.

Of course, Zack Hample was right in the middle of Christopher Morel's frustrating night

There are few things that all MLB fans agree with, but Zack Hample being annoying is one of them. Hample, an individual with tens of thousands of baseballs in his possession, still feels the need to go after any baseball he possibly can by virtually any means necessary and flaunt them on his YouTube channel.

Morel, in the middle of his postgame remarks, ranted about Hample catching the home run.

Morel said he “100 percent” would have caught it. “I felt the glove, like his glove went in my glove, too,” Morel said.

It's hard to blame Morel for having this reaction. After watching the replay, there is, in fact, a very good chance he would've come down with that ball. For that, he and Rays fans should be frustrated. With that being said, even with Hample being as annoying as he is, he really shouldn't be criticized for what transpired on Tuesday.

The ball was over the wall. It would have been a home run had nobody caught it. The ball being over the wall means that it's fully within Hample's right to catch it. Had this been a random fan who came down with the ball, this would've been a non-story.

The worst part about all that went down in Morel's frustrating night is that the Rays lost by a final score of 4-3. Had Morel come down with that home run ball, they would've won. Had Morel hustled out of the box on his eventual double, perhaps the Rays would've won. Had Morel not been as frustrated, perhaps he wouldn't have gotten ejected.

Just frustrating all around in what has been a rough season thus far for the Rays.