Angels’ minor league coach Ty Boykin excited to get called up

Nearly 20 years after playing his last game, Ty Boykin finally got the call he was waiting for last week: He was going to the major leagues.

A speedy outfielder who played at Jacksonville University in Florida, Boykin spent six seasons in the minor leagues before retiring as a player and becoming a coach in 1997. He worked his way up to his current position as the Angels’ roving outfield, baserunning and bunting instructor.

Before joining the Angels on Tuesday, Boykin had spent only one day in the majors, filling in as the first base coach in 2013.

“For me to get that phone call, it was pretty exciting,” Boykin said before the Angels’ 9-4 victory over the Oakland Athletics on Wednesday. “Almost like a player. It was the same feeling.”

The Angels will shuffle minor league coaches in and out of the clubhouse over the next month. Boykin, 47, is scheduled to leave six games into the team’s upcoming homestand to begin preparing to coach in the instructional league.

Until then, he’ll work with some of the minor league players who were also called up this week.

“It’s a reward thing. But also, you want them to bring something to the party,” Manager Mike Scioscia said. “Ty, he’s very well-rounded. And he knows a lot of the younger players.

“I’m sure it’s a thrill for some guys to get up here that haven’t been in the major leagues. And that’s nice. But we need them to contribute.”

Boykin plans to watch as well as work, hoping to pick up something other than memories to take with him.

“It’s always good for a player to get called up at this time of the year. But it’s just as beneficial for guys like myself to come up and observe and just kind of check out how things are done,” he said. “Hopefully, we can to a point to where we’re doing some of the same things at the minor league level.”

Pitching in

Andrew Heaney, like the rest of the Angels, would just as soon forget last month. He began August with a 5-0 record and 1.79 earned-run average, only to give up 17 runs and lose his only two decisions in six starts.

For an inning Wednesday, it looked as if September would be no kinder. Staked to a four-run first inning lead, Heaney gave up three runs after getting two outs to let Oakland back in the game.

But the Athletics would get nothing more against him in an effort Heaney considered something of a character test.

“I’m really proud of what I did today,” he said. “It’s one of those things where, if it works out, you say ‘What a great competitor.’ [But] if I go out there and I give up two the next inning, you say ‘Oh, that guy shut it down.’

“It’s just one of those that sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.”

Fall ball

The Angels will send eight prospects to the six-team Arizona Fall League, which begins in mid-October.

Pitchers Alan Busenitz, Greg Mahle, Harrison Cooney and Ryan Etsell; catcher Stephen McGee; infielder Eric Aguilera; and outfielders Caleb Adams and Chad Hinshaw will play for Mesa, alongside prospects from the Athletics, Chicago Cubs, Miami Marlins and Tampa Bay Rays.