Francona family squares off in Indians-Angels contest

ANAHEIM -- Nick Francona 1, Terry Francona 0.

In Tuesday's fifth inning, Mike Scioscia challenged a play in which J.B. Shuck was initially ruled out at first base and got it overturned, setting up a two-out, two-run single from Howie Kendrick that increased the Angels' lead over Terry Francona's Indians to four.

The call came from Nick Francona, Terry's son, who's in charge of monitoring replay.

"I thought that was kind of weak on his part," Terry joked pregame. "He may work for Scioscia, but he's my son."

Nick graduated from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business in 2008, then took a detour to war-torn Afghanistan to commandeer a Marine brigade's scout-sniper platoon in 2011 and is now a crucial part of the Angels' staff, deciding when Scioscia should use his challenge, compiling data for scouting reports and, in this case, trying to figure out ways to beat his father.

"It's definitely an interesting experience," Nick said, smiling.

"He had a great job and was making good money, and decided he wanted to follow what he was passionate about," Terry said. "I'm really proud of him for that. I think he's going to do well. He'll do well at whatever he wants to do."

Baseball was a big part of Nick's household growing up, for obvious reasons, but he said the game was never forced upon him. He pitched until blowing out his shoulder in his second year of college, and aspires to be a general manager someday.

Asked what he learned most about his father, Nick said, "Communication skills."

"One of the things he did pretty well, which you kind of saw growing up but didn't realize until you started working yourself, was he's very good at communicating with players," Nick said. "He's very open, and guys know where they stand, which is very important."