PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Like in the days of making the Zoltan sign at second base over a decade ago, it was a new necklace that the Pirates were excited about Monday and thought maybe had something to do with the best offensive output of the season in a 10-3 win over Washington.
Look, it was really about a more aggressive mindset and execution at the plate, but when you come off a series when you could barely sniff any offense, they were willing to try something.
“Hey man, whatever it takes,” said Pirates manager Derek Shelton. “I don’t care, whatever it takes.”
The idea was from veteran Andrew McCutchen who remembered how catcher Rod Barajas and AJ Burnett went to see the movie ‘Dude, Where’s My Car?’ over a dozen years ago and Barajas couldn’t stop talking about Zoltan. It became a fun rallying point and McCutchen was hoping for that coming off the weekend in Cincinnati.
He said he called his friends at Phiten, who make rope like baseball necklaces, and asked if they could send a shipment in black and gold. He handed them out to the team pregame, and 10 runs later the three-game skid was over.
“It’s kinda cool that we were able to do something as a team and then it translate into a game and us have the game we had today.,” McCutchen said. “You can say coincidence, I guess. I think it’s more these are the things you do as a team sometimes to win ballgames. Sometimes it takes buying in. We all just bought in and ran with it.”
“I was fired up,” said outfielder Bryan Reynolds, who drove in two runs. “I think everyone wore Phitens in middle school or high school, I think it took us back to that. I think we were a little out of sync. A little out of balance, we had to put on our Phitens and lock in.”
“When it comes to baseball, you’ll do whatever it takes to turn it around,” McCutchen said. “I’m not saying Phitens are the new Zoltan, but it gives us something to cheer about, something to laugh about. You just have to do that in this game. I guess it was my way of doing it.”