Trade acquisition Morel homers in Tampa Bay debut, Rays rally to beat Marlins 9-3

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Trade acquisition Christopher Morel homered in his Tampa Bay debut, helping the new-look Rays come from behind to beat the Miami Marlins 9-3 on Tuesday night.

Ben Rortvedt and Yandy Diaz each contributed two-run singles off reliever Declan Cronin (2-3) during a five-run sixth inning that propelled the Rays to a 6-3 lead. Jose Caballero added an RBI double, then scored on a balk while attempting to steal home to extend the lead in the seventh.

Morel, acquired Sunday in a trade that sent All-Star infielder Isaac Paredes to Chicago, homered to left center field off Marlins starter Edward Cabrera leading off the fourth inning. The deal was one of several the Rays made the past week with an eye on positioning themselves for success in coming years.

“We know he's got a lot of power,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “He was fun to be around today. The hitting was great, but also his presence in the dugout — vocal, smiling, kind of what we had heard” about him.

The homer was Morel's 19th of the season.

With three straight wins, Tampa Bay (55-52) also climbed three games over .500 for the first time in two months and is back in contention for a wild-card playoff berth.

The Marlins (39-68) were also sellers before the trade deadline, moving third baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. to the New York Yankees last week and moving infielder Josh Bell and pitchers Tanner Scott, Trevor Rogers and JT Chargois in deals Tuesday.

Left-hander Jeffrey Springs returned from Tommy John surgery, making his first start since April 2023 for the Rays. He allowed a two-run homer to Emmanuel Rivera in the first inning and yielded six hits while striking out three over 3 2/3 innings.

“Wish I could have pitched better, obviously, but I'm trying to look at the bigger picture," Springs said.

“He's known to be hard of himself,” Cash said. “But hopefully he can find some positives that he's on a big league mound and contributing to us winning.”

Jake Burger had a solo homer off Tyler Alexander (4-3) for a 3-1 Marlins lead in the fifth. Cabrera left the game with a knee injury after allowing two runs and three hits in five-plus innings.

TRAINERS ROOM

Marlins: Cabrera departed two pitches into the sixth inning. He motioned with his glove for catcher Nick Fortes to approach the mound and was replaced by Cronin after a brief discussion with manager Skip Schumaker.

Schumaker said the right-hander tweaked his knee covering first base on an infield single the previous inning.

“We'll figure it out after testing (Wednesday),” the manager added.

Rays: Springs made his first start since April 13, 2023, against the Boston Red Sox, a span of 474 days. He threw 76 pitches, 46 for strikes.

UP NEXT

Right-hander Taj Bradley (6-4, 2.43 ERA) starts the finale of a two-game series for Tampa Bay. The Marlins will counter with right-hander Roddery Munoz (1-5, 5.61).

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

Miami Marlins starting pitcher Edward Cabrera delivers to the Tampa Bay Rays during the first inning of a baseball game Tuesday, July 30, 2024, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Christopher O'Meara)

Tampa Bay Rays starting pitcher Jeffrey Springs delivers to the Miami Marlins during the first inning of a baseball game Tuesday, July 30, 2024, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Christopher O'Meara)

Tampa Bay Rays' Ben Rortvedt, right, scores in front of Miami Marlins catcher Nick Fortes on a two-run single by Yandy Diaz during the sixth inning of a baseball game Tuesday, July 30, 2024, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Christopher O'Meara)

Tampa Bay Rays relief pitcher Tyler Alexander reacts as Miami Marlins' Jake Burger runs around the bases after his solo home run during the fifth inning of a baseball game Tuesday, July 30, 2024, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Christopher O'Meara)

Miami Marlins' Jake Burger runs the bases after his solo home run off Tampa Bay Rays relief pitcher Tyler Alexander during the fifth inning of a baseball game Tuesday, July 30, 2024, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Christopher O'Meara)

Tampa Bay Rays' Jose Caballero, center, steals home plate as the ball skips away from Miami Marlins catcher Nick Fortes, right, during the seventh inning of a baseball game Tuesday, July 30, 2024, in St. Petersburg, Fla. Making the call is home plate umpire Tripp Gibson. (AP Photo/Christopher O'Meara)

Tampa Bay Rays' Christopher Morel celebrates with teammates after the team defeated the Miami Marlins during a baseball game Tuesday, July 30, 2024, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Christopher O'Meara)

Tampa Bay Rays second baseman Christopher Morel, left, drops the ball as Miami Marlins' Xavier Edwards steals second base during the first inning of a baseball game Tuesday, July 30, 2024, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Christopher O'Meara)

Tampa Bay Rays' Christopher Morel connects for a solo home run off Miami Marlins starting pitcher Edward Cabrera during the fourth inning of a baseball game Tuesday, July 30, 2024, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Christopher O'Meara)

On a scorching day in June 2013, the Grand Canyon discouraged hikers from making a long trek to the bottom because there would be no potable water. A set of historic cabins and bunks also would be closed overnight because of a water pipeline break.

The incident was one of more than 85 breaks that the 12.5-mile (20-kilometer) long Transcanyon Waterline, which supplies potable water to the Grand Canyon's South Rim and inner canyon, has experienced since 2010. Finished in 1970, the pipeline has long exceeded its 30-year design life, disrupting operations at one of the most popular U.S. national parks.

The pipeline has remained a leaky, flimsy albeit vital piece of infrastructure for millions of visitors. This year, after multiple breaks, officials imposed water restrictions and canceled overnight stays at busy hotels, upending some summer vacations over Labor Day weekend.

A long-term fix is expected by roughly 2027, but it's taken decades to get to that point. The lengthy timeline is due to a complex design process and the challenge of funding expensive projects at the National Park Service, which struggles under mountains of overdue maintenance, according to experts who know its history.

“It just takes awhile for something this big,” said Robert Parrish, chief of planning, environment and projects at Grand Canyon National Park, adding that it’s not just the park service — utilities can take 10 to 15 years to start building big projects.

Recent stays at El Tovar Hotel, Bright Angel Lodge and other hotels on the canyon's South Rim were halted for roughly a week as officials rushed to patch up four breaks in the water line.

The Transcanyon pipeline twists and turns over the canyon's rugged terrain. For years, the park service repaired pipeline failures from rock falls, freezes, flash floods and other causes on an ad hoc basis, Parrish said. One 2015 estimate said over roughly the previous three decades, the pipeline suffered five to 30 breaks per year. Those cost on average about $25,000 each.

It isn't like fixing most pipelines, according to Dan Cockrum, chief of maintenance and engineering at the park for nearly a decade until 1993.

Helicopters had to shuttle workers to the leak. They would measure the damaged pipe's thickness and bend, return to the rim and craft a replacement piece, then head back down to install the new section, he recalled.

Leaks happened a few times a year. Around when Cockrum left that job, engineers studied replacing the entire thing or its most vulnerable portions, because it was suffering stress fractures and corrosion and was near the end of its useful life. But the plan for a major fix wasn't adopted.

“When you have inadequate resources it comes down to sort of a triage approach," said Ernie Atencio, Southwest regional director with the National Parks Conservation Association and a former Grand Canyon ranger. "You do the best you can for as long as you can. And sometimes things will blow up on you.”

In the short term, a piecemeal approach may have made economic sense. A few repairs a year were significantly cheaper than the tens of millions of dollars for a replacement project, according to Greg MacGregor, chief of the project management team at the park from 2006 to 2017.

That thinking shifted toward a permanent solution in the early 2010s, Parrish said.

"Instead of looking at a large number of small repair projects, the teams really transitioned to ‘how do we look at making an overall replacement of the entire system?’” he said.

MacGregor remembers a huge brainstorm process to figure out the best option and years of analyzing how to solve the complex problem of moving scarce water up to the South Rim.

The park service has hurried to fix breaks, some bigger than others, and slowly save for a major overhaul, Parrish said, “There was too much to tackle at once."

In 2018, the National Park Service released an environmental assessment, asked for public input, then the next year officials signed off on a more comprehensive fix. The Transcanyon Waterline project will involve replacing about 3 miles (5 kilometers) of pipe inside the canyon, upgrading 3 miles (5 kilometers) of electrical supply line inside the canyon, building a water intake at a new location and updating water treatment and electrical systems.

Officials say the project will ensure the park will be able to meet its water supply needs for the next 50 years or more.

Funding was one of the biggest hurdles. The park’s maintenance backlog kept growing during MacGregor’s time, and he remembers Congress was reluctant to write a big check. The park would end up contributing from visitor fees. In 2018, fees went up in part to help pay for the pipeline.

U.S. national parks fund costly maintenance work mainly through Congress but also from donations, philanthropy and park entrance fees. Large parks like the Grand Canyon, with nearly 5 million visitors in 2023, don’t keep everything they receive from entrance fees; larger parks distribute a portion of fees to smaller parks, many of which don't charge visitors. Grand Canyon keeps 80% of its visitor fees, Parrish said.

A $208 million construction contract was awarded in 2023. Congress provided more than $70 million for the project but the bulk will come from park fees, Parrish said.

“The sheer magnitude of the scope of this project is maybe the answer to why it took so long to decide, plan and execute,” he said.

Over the years, breaks have taken a toll.

Wendy Haluda is a former baker at El Tovar Hotel where diners this spring could order a filet mignon with a demi glace for $54. After a pipeline break in 2016, water restrictions forced the restaurant to reduce dishwashing and use paper plates and plastic utensils. And Haluda recalled staff worrying about where they would go if conditions worsened to where they couldn't stay overnight at their park housing.

“It was scary,” she recalled.

Badly needed repairs, maintenance and infrastructure replacement like the Grand Canyon's pipeline are a nationwide problem. The park service has a nearly $23 billion maintenance backlog for aging infrastructure.

More than half that is for road work and maintaining buildings at national parks. The remainder is for water systems, trails, campground and infrastructure such as wastewater treatment.

The Grand Canyon has a backlog of $823 million for maintenance and repairs, mostly maintaining buildings and trails.

The Great American Outdoors Act of 2020 provided billions in additional funding, although it will expire soon if Congress doesn't renew it.

A lot of park infrastructure dates 70 years or more and upkeep has been neglected, according to Tate Watkins, a researcher at the think tank Property and Environment Research Center.

“People like cutting ribbons on new national parks,” he said. “But it’s a lot less sexy to talk about fixing sewer lines or, you know, rebuilding a water line for the Grand Canyon.”

Associated Press reporter Rio Yamat contributed from Las Vegas. Researcher Rhonda Shafner contributed from New York.

The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment.

FILE - In this undated photo provided by the National Park Service shows a water spraying from a break in an exposed section of the Grand Canyon trans-canyon waterline as a worker attempts repairs. (National Park Service via AP, File)

Guests exit Bright Angel Lodge, after visitors won't be able to stay overnight in hotels at Grand Canyon National Park beginning Thursday after a series of breaks in the only pipeline that serves the popular tourist destination, Thursday, Aug. 29, 2024, in Grand Canyon, Ariz. AP Photo/Matt York)

A group of day visitors walk past a closed water bottle tap along the Rim Trail, as visitors won't be able to stay overnight in hotels or refill water bottles at Grand Canyon National Park after a series of breaks in the only pipeline that serves the popular tourist destination, Thursday, Aug. 29, 2024, in Grand Canyon, Ariz. (AP Photo/Matt York)