How was Jose Bautista able to break out of his slump against the Red Sox this weekend? It’s gotta be the pants.
The Blue Jays slugger had gone just 5-for-37 (.135) in the 10 games leading up to the four-game set at Fenway Park, causing his batting average to drop by nearly 20 points. After going a combined 1-for-7 over the first half of the series — with Toronto losing both games — Bautista decided to mix things up.
Like most major leaguers nowadays, Bautista typically wears his baseball pants low around his spikes, but he went with an old-school, high-cuffed look on Saturday and Sunday, borrowing pitcher R.A. Dickey‘s trousers to do so.
The curse-breaker worked like a charm. Bautista went 5-for-9 with four RBIs over the two games, clubbing three monster home runs and gunning down Shane Victorino at the plate with a laser of a throw from right field.
And when something isn’t broken, why fix it? After doubling and scoring twice in a win over Detroit on Monday, Bautista announced he would be wearing “Dickey’s pants until further notice.”
Check out Bautista’s good-luck pants (and what Red Sox reliever Koji Uehara thought of them) in the photo below.