“I’ve been thinking that’s the issue, when in reality I just have to adjust mentally,” Nelson said. “So that was tonight’s go-to plan.”
Nelson is 6 for 16 with three homers through the first four games of this week’s series. He raised his average to .202 with a 3-for-4 night.
“It’s been a struggle this year,” he said. “Tonight was just all about clearing the head and just being positive. If I get out, I get out. If I walk away punching out, I walk away telling myself that my swing felt good and I really believe it.”
As a catcher Nelson enters a game with his mind full of lots of things besides hitting.
“He’s a little more focused on the hitting side,” manager Bryan LaHair said. “For a while he’s been really focused on the catching, game-planning and a lot of things that come with this level. It can take away from you a little bit at times, but he’s just having fun. He’s in a pretty good place right now.”
Nelson’s power has never been in question. He led the nation with 23 homers his final year at Florida State and won the Johnny Bench and Buster Posey Award as the nation’s best catcher. The Reds drafted him 35th overall in 2021 in the supplemental first round.
Nelson’s two homers Friday give him 15 for the season, which is one behind the league leaders. He hit eight homers and batted .219 in 82 games last year in Dayton. He knows the batters boxes well in the Midwest League, and he says that’s where his new focus must stay.
“I love my job,” he said. “When I wake up in the morning I can’t wait to go to the field because I like to go work. The feeling that I have when I want to go to the field is the feeling I need to have when I get in the box. Not the is-this-gonna-work mindset. It’s the who-cares-whatever-happens-happens, leave-it-all-out-on-the-field mindset.”
Friday night’s starting pitcher, 20-year-old Jose Acuna, will need to think the same way the next time he’s on the mound. Acuna entered with a 2.97 ERA and had given up more than two earned runs in only one of his 13 starts. He had also given up only eight home runs in 75 2/3 innings.
But Beloit hit four homers against Acuna, including three after there were two outs in a five-run fifth inning that put the Sky Carp ahead 7-4.
“He just missed pitches – that’s it,” Nelson said. “All of his stuff was there. He even said three of the four home runs were fastballs that he just left middle middle. Otherwise, nothing has been different for him. Everybody has those days.”
Nelson has no concern that Acuna will carry that fifth inning with him to the mound next week.
“He doesn’t ride the roller coaster,” Nelson said. “He stays in the same heartbeat every single time he steps on the mound. Tomorrow he’s going to show up and he’s not going to be in his sorrows.”
Nelson was in the middle of a double-play defensive gem that ended the sixth inning when the game was still in reach at 8-4. With the speedy Yiddi Cappe at third and the infield in, Joe Mack bounced a grounder to second baseman Yan Contreras.
Contreras looked Cappe, who took a big lead, back at third and threw to first baseman Ruben Ibarra for the first out. Then Cappe broke for home. Ibarra made a perfect throw and Nelson made a perfect tag to get Cappe.
“That was a heads up play,” LaHair said. “Contreras froze the runner, checked him back a step, got rid of the ball quick and Ruben was ready to fire. Mat knows his positioning and where he needs to be before the ball gets there, and he knows where he’s taking the tag to.”
Dayton and Fort Wayne, an 8-4 loser to Great Lakes, remain tied atop the East Division second-half standings at 19-15. West Michigan is a game behind and Great Lakes is two games behind.
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