blast from past

Daryle Ward is playing for Mobile? The 36-year-old former Jackson Generals star and longtime big leaguer is back in Double-A? Well, yes. He hit a big home run for the BayBears — Arizona’s affiliate in the Southern League — to beat the Mississippi Braves on Thursday night. Ward, a left-handed hitter who had big-time power in his heyday, was signed to a minor league deal by Arizona on July 31. He last played in the independent Atlantic League, hitting 14 homers for Newark in 2010 and 12 in 57 games this summer. He spent some time in Triple-A in 2009 but hasn’t been in a major league game since ’08. Ward smacked 19 homers for the 1997 Generals and famously hit the foul ball that went through the wooden outfield fence at Smith-Wills Stadium. (Sure, the fence was old, but it makes for a great, Roy Hobbs-type story.) Ward blasted 20 homers for Houston in 2000 and hit 70 more while playing for six different teams — including Atlanta in 2006 — in his big league career. Rest assured, Ward is not in Mobile to help the BayBears win a Southern League pennant. Arizona is in a division race, and Ward just might be able to help them as a power-threat pinch hitter in September.

P.S. Apparently, Tyler Pastornicky was ready for Triple-A pitching. The former M-Braves shortstop is hitting .398 through 23 games at Gwinnett. He has a homer, nine RBIs and 15 runs. In 90 games in Pearl, Pastornicky batted .299 with six homers, 36 RBIs and 50 runs.