Instead of the Pittsburgh Pirates making it a bigger deal than it needed to be, the organization is fully getting behind their skipper. Don Kelly came out and said that he had decided to make the move in the second game of the four-game set against the Washington Nationals because he felt confident that the move was correct when he pinch-hit Nick Yorke for Brandon Lowe.
While it didn't work out. Lowe, a veteran who has been around this league for a very long time and has proven that he can hit anybody who's on the mound, could have taken that as a sign of disrespect.
Instead of that being the case, he was asked about it again, as it seemed others thought he’d view it as disrespectful, but he gave the same response he did when it happened.
Lowe could have made this a much bigger deal than it is, but he admitted that for the Pirates to be the team they're looking to be, they need guys to be bought in. Lowe also understands that he, as the big offseason addition, needs to keep his head down and do what this organization is asking him to do.
Whether that be starting every game, coming in for a pinch-hit at-bat, or even getting platooned in random scenarios, he needs to be a good teammate and help out.
“There really is no other option,” Lowe said, per MLB.com. “If you want to have a good clubhouse, if you want to have a good team, you have to trust your guys who are making the calls. If you start to second-guess what’s going on, that’s a cancerous attitude that leaks through the rest of the team, and it gets bad…
“You put your faith in every guy in this clubhouse, including Donnie and the coaching staff,” Lowe said, per Jason Mackey of MLB.com. “You have to be 100% in each other’s corner. That’s the only way to go about it.
With a mindset like this, the Pirates will simply be a better team because of how they're acting.
In years past, it seems like a veteran being told he was going to be pinch-hit for would lead to an issue. Instead of Lowe making it one, he's ready for the Pirates to jump back on the field and win a game, which they did on Wednesday in an impressive two-run victory.