Angels Manager Phil Nevin Claims His Team Was Tipping Pitches on Purpose

Recently during an Angels-White Sox matchup, Angels superstar Mike Trout apparently noticed his own teammate Elvis Peguero tipping pitches on the mound.

While out on defense, Trout started mimicking Peguero's glove motions and appeared noticeably frustrated with the lack of awareness:

Now his manager claims the entire episode was on purpose.

During the Apple TV+ broadcast of Friday's Angels-Astros game in Houston, commentators showed images of Peguero's different setups based on the intended pitch, but quoted Phil Nevin saying instead of tipping his pitches, he actually "fooled Mike Trout:"

Apparently Nevin repeated that "he was doing that on purpose," and all of the easily identifiable differences were "intentional" as part of his effort to try and "make it look like he was tipping his pitches to fool the batter."

Peguero gave up 4 runs in 2/3 of an inning in a blowout Angels loss, so if he was tipping pitches on purpose, it was a spectacularly bad idea.

It seems more likely that Nevin was trying to protect his pitcher instead of admitting that he was unwittingly helping out the opposing team.

Whatever the real explanation, the Angels pitching staff continues to remain a mess, losing 8-1 yesterday and falling further behind the first place Astros.