Hoist one up! Pirates reliever catches HR hit into bullpen with traffic cone

PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Pirates took their traffic cone celebration to a new level on Friday.

The Pirates, who have used the cones as a rallying point to move “traffic” along -- scoring runs, in baseball lingo -- got an added twist at PNC Park.

When Marcell Ozuna crushed a home run into the Pittsburgh bullpen in right-center field during the Pirates’ six-run third inning, reliever Yohan Ramírez caught the ball on the fly with a traffic cone.

He was mobbed by his teammates.

“Ozuna hits one into the cone,” the Pirates announcers said. “Yohan Ramírez with the cone catch.”

The Pirates entered Friday’s game ranked fifth in scoring among major league teams, MLB.com reported. They were last during the 2025 season.

Since baseball fans thrive on statistics, Statcast, MLB’s tracking technology service, crunched some numbers and determined that Ramírez had a 4.12% chance of catching the ball in the cone.

The idea for using a traffic cone as a prop when Fanatics introduced a new T-shirt that sported a Pirates logo and the puzzling phrase, "Hoist the Cone," USA Today reported.

No one really new what the phrase meant, so Pittsburgh outfielders Jake Mangum and Billy Cook created their own definition, according to the newspaper.

“We’ve had a lot of traffic on the bases recently,” Mangum told MLB.com in early April. “We just haven’t directed ‘em home. We needed a traffic cone to make sure they got home.

“Once (Pirates assistant clubhouse manager) Nik Cook slapped a Pirates sticker on that thing, it was over. You have to direct some traffic home sometimes, man.”

Cook is the cone’s caretaker in the dugout.

“If we’re gonna have a cone in here, someone’s gotta lift it up,” Cook told USA Today. “It’s not gonna hoist itself.”

The Pirates bullpen celebrated a little too early, though.

They blew a five-run lead in an 11-9, 10-inning loss to the Phillies.

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