Detroit – Tyler Nevin is only 25 years old, but he’s lived this game his entire life, being the son of former big-leaguer and now manager of the Angels Phil Nevin. He’s experienced the joys and heartbreaks both through his father and firsthand.
So it was not in the least surprising that he stood in front of the media Saturday night just minutes after experiencing a dizzying emotional shift and answered every question honestly and forthrightly.
“I’m not going to pout about it,” he said.
Nevin came off the bench in the sixth inning in Game 2 Saturday night and hit the first pinch-hit home run of his career, a three-run shot into the center field shrubs that brought the Tigers back into contention in a game they would end up losing 6-4.
That manager AJ Hinch entrusted him in that situation, against a tough right-hander in Orioles’ Mike Baumann, meant the world to him.
“I was fired up and that had everything to do with him trusting me and being able to come through and put us back in the game,” Nevin said.
After the game, he was summoned into Hinch’s office and told he’d been optioned back to Triple-A Toledo.
“I can’t argue with it, being 2 for 21,” Nevin said.
The short-sample results are only part of the reason for the move, as Hinch laid out after the game. Part of it involves Zack Short, whose defensive versatility, coupled with his ability to hit left-handed pitching, is needed more right now, especially with outfielder Kerry Carpenter on the injured list.
Short, who served as the 27th man Saturday, was expected to be officially recalled from Toledo before the game Sunday.
“Shorty brings a different skillset to that spot on the roster,” Hinch said. “Shorty offers a different dynamic off the bench whether its defensively or his at-bats against lefties. The quality of his play is not too dissimilar to what Ryan Kreidler brought to our Opening Day roster — probably playing in most games in various parts of the game.”
The Tigers also want to give corner infielder Andy Ibanez a look. Like Nevin before him, Ibanez was hitting the ball well and getting on base at a high clip at Toledo. But Nevin, as he said, never caught a rhythm in his two weeks with the Tigers.
“Yeah, I never like felt (in rhythm) in the entirety of being here,” he said. “We had a couple of scheduling things early on. I’ve felt better lately but with the rainouts and travel days — I have to be better at not letting that get me out of whack like it felt like it did.”
That’s the other part of why the Tigers are sending him back down. He needs to play. He needs consistent at-bats. And Hinch didn’t feel like that was going to happen in these next few weeks.
“His role was sort of funky,” Hinch said. “We wanted to give him a longer look but that didn’t really work out for either one of us right now. As I told Nev, he’s going to be back. He’s got to go get some at-bats. We don’t have the playing time, looking at the next couple of weeks, for him.
“So we’re going to take a different approach, with Shorty and his defense and the potential for a good at-bat.”
Message received. Nevin will report back to Toledo in a couple of days and get back to work.
“There’s no point is sulking,” he said. “You’ve got to keep going forward. I’ve been in this spot before. All I can do is try to mitigate this from happening in the future and that’s not going to happen if I go down, bury my head and sulk.”
Twitter@cmccosky