1998 Ford Ranger manual trans?

Just did an auto to std swap. The mechanic didn't thighten the shifter and while driving it popped out. Since I was on the road i tried to put it back in and played with it trying to get it into gear. I believe I stuck it into two gears at the same time since even in neutral it would go forward and 1st seemed to be 3rd or higher. Went to garage and the mechanic just inserted a long screwdriver where the shifter goes and applied pressure a couples time and got it into neural. Charged me 50bucks for 5 mins. I just would want to know what he did in the trans to get it into neutral and unstuck out of the two gears since I tried for hours on the road?