Scathing Online Schoolmarm Says:
To propitiate is to “win or regain the favor of (a god, spirit, or person) by doing something that pleases them: ‘the pagans thought it was important to propitiate the gods with sacrifices.'” Squint as hard as you like at Tennis World‘s use of it in my headline and you’re still not gonna get there.
SOS thinks the writer might have meant precipitate?