{"id":7963,"date":"2010-09-10T13:08:07","date_gmt":"2010-09-10T20:08:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.seamheads.com\/?p=7963"},"modified":"2010-09-10T13:54:22","modified_gmt":"2010-09-10T20:54:22","slug":"ayala%e2%80%99s-return-gives-sparky-lyles-team-big-boost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/2010\/09\/10\/ayala%e2%80%99s-return-gives-sparky-lyles-team-big-boost\/","title":{"rendered":"Ayala\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Return Gives Sparky Lyle’s Team Big Boost"},"content":{"rendered":"

If anyone heard what sounded like a collective sigh of relief recently, it probably came from the Somerset Patriots<\/strong> clubhouse because pesky Elliott Ayala <\/strong>had shaken off the effects of being hit squarely on the mouth with a pitch sufficiently to get back in the lineup.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a guy that we need,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Manager Sparky Lyle <\/strong>told MyCentralJersey.com <\/em>during the 5-foot-9 infielder-outfielder\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s week on the sidelines.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re winning without him now, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not an unknown fact that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s always in the middle of everything.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Ayala has already helped Somerset to a pair of Atlantic League <\/strong>championships, and is being counted on to carry some of the load as the Patriots try to three-peat, which would be their sixth title overall.\u00c2\u00a0 Ayala, either 30 or 31 depending on the source, has gone 6-for-22 (.273) in six games since his return, which is barely below his .283 season average.\u00c2\u00a0 He has contributed 56 runs and 31 RBI in 105 games.<\/p>\n

Alums Patterson, Watson, Pascucci Contributing<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

While catcher Mike Rivera (Atlantic City) <\/strong>is the only Atlantic League <\/strong>grad who has benefitted from the September expansion of major league rosters so far, various 2010 alums of the league are prominent in affiliated playoffs.<\/p>\n

Former Lancaster <\/strong>closer Scott Patterson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s <\/strong>two scoreless innings (three strikeouts) saved Tacoma\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s <\/strong>first Pacific Coast League <\/strong>playoff victory, a series the Seattle <\/strong>farmhands now lead, 2-0.\u00c2\u00a0 Playoff foe Sacramento <\/strong>has Barnstormers <\/strong>outfielder Matt Watson <\/strong>hitting cleanup (2-for-8, one RBI).<\/p>\n

Patterson had a positive season after leaving Lancaster, winning two of three decisions and saving six games in 29 appearances (2.67 ERA) and his typical solid control, but just as big of an impression had to be left by early-season Camden <\/strong>outfielder Valentino Pascucci<\/strong>, who homered every 11.2 at-bats for the New York Mets\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Buffalo <\/strong>farm club.\u00c2\u00a0 The 6-foot-6, 270-pound Pascucci hit 17 round-trippers in only 72 games, and with three homers for the Riversharks <\/strong>now has 235 for his professional career.<\/p>\n

* * * *WANT MORE INDEPENDENT BASEBALL COVERAGE?\u00c2\u00a0 Check out\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 www.AtlanticLeagueBaseball.com<\/a> and www.IndyBaseballChatter.com<\/a> * * * *<\/strong><\/p>\n

This \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcn That<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

It does not appear San Diego <\/strong>plans to add Wily Mo Pena <\/strong>to its roster despite the fact the 28-year-old slugger hit .324 (.365 with runners in scoring position) with nine homers and 34 RBI in 40 games for Portland, OR<\/strong> after purchasing his contract from Bridgeport\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/strong>The Hoorelbeke <\/strong>brothers are in the independent Northern League <\/strong>playoffs, one year after playing at Bridgeport<\/strong>.\u00c2\u00a0 Casey <\/strong>led the Northern League in earned run average (1.84), a tough feat for a reliever, but he qualified with 83 innings and allowed only 56 hits while winning 10 of 15 decisions and saving seven games. Jesse <\/strong>was second in home runs (29), then hit a three-run blast in the opening playoff victory for Fargo, ND<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

(These are excerpts from the Atlantic League Notebook.\u00c2\u00a0 Subscriptions to the full Notebook are available via <\/em>www.AtlanticLeagueBaseball.com<\/em><\/a> or <\/em>www.WirzandAssociates.com<\/em><\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 Bob Wirz also writes a weekly column, the Independent Baseball Insider, as well as a blog, www.IndyBaseballChatter.com. The author <\/strong>has 16 years of major league baseball public relations experience with Kansas City and as chief spokesman for two Commissioners and lives in Stratford, CT.) <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If anyone heard what sounded like a collective sigh of relief recently, it probably came from the Somerset Patriots clubhouse because pesky Elliott Ayala had shaken off the effects of being hit squarely on the mouth with a pitch sufficiently to get back in the lineup. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a guy that we need,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Manager Sparky Lyle […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":452,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6254,9],"tags":[10763,9036,10757,10762,7702,5337,535,499,4848,4839,10759,843,10761,10764,3715,3208,6242,743,9331,10760,677,10758],"class_list":["post-7963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-atlantic-league-notebook","category-general","tag-ayala","tag-barnstormers","tag-buffalo-farm","tag-collective-sigh","tag-matt-watson","tag-mike-rivera","tag-new-york-mets","tag-outfielder","tag-pacific-coast","tag-pacific-coast-league","tag-playoff-victory","tag-scoreless-innings","tag-scott-patterson","tag-sidelines","tag-sigh-of-relief","tag-six-games","tag-somerset-patriots","tag-sparky-lyle","tag-three-homers","tag-three-peat","tag-trippers","tag-valentino-pascucci"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/452"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7963\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}