Former big-league pitcher and outfielder Rick Ankiel had one of the more dramatic meltdowns we’ll ever see in baseball. In the 2000 NLDS against the Braves, Ankiel threw five wild pitches in the third inning. That inning turned into a case of the yips that he couldn’t shake.

Ankiel opened up about his career-changing meltdown to 590 The Fan in St. Louis on Monday ahead of his upcoming book, The Phenomenon: Pressure, The Yips, and the Pitch that Changed My Life.

In his first start after that career-changing inning, Ankiel said he drank vodka to calm his nerves.

Via insidestl.com:

“Before that game, I’m scared to death. I know I have no chance. Feeling the pressure of all that, right before the game I get a bottle of vodka. I just started drinking vodka. Low and behold, it kind of tamed the monster, and I was able to do what I wanted. I’m sitting on the bench feeling kind of crazy I have to drink vodka to pitch through this. It worked for that game.”

He continued:

“It was one of those things like the yips, the monster, the disease. It didn’t fight fair, so I felt like I wasn’t going to fight fair either.”

That start was against the eventual 2001 World Series champion Arizona Diamondbacks and Randy Johnson. Ankiel won that game.

Rick Ankiel told @TMASTL he drank a bottle of vodka before his first start of '01, after his '00 postseason collapse. He beat Randy Johnson. pic.twitter.com/ktR6njPAF9 — Drew Silva (@drewsilv) February 20, 2017

Ankiel said that after that successful first start, he continued to drink before starts. But it caught up with him as he lost his next two starts and walked 10 batters in 8 innings.

He pitched six games in 2001. In 2004, he gave up on pitching and rebuilt his career as an outfielder after three years in the minor leagues. He rejoined the Cardinals as an outfielder in 2007 and spent the next six seasons in the big leagues.

You can listen to the full interview here.