Baby Bombers return with power, RailRiders edge IronPigs 6-5

The Baby Bombers came back with the kind of pop Scranton/Wilkes-Barre wanted to show off, and this time the swings held up in a 6-5 win over Lehigh Valley at PNC Field. After the earlier extra-inning disappointment, the RailRiders turned the alternate identity’s return into a cleaner finish, using a three-run fourth, a solo homer from Tyler Hardman and late defensive nerve to beat the IronPigs.

The club said the Baby Bombers look would be worn for every Sunday home game for the rest of the 2026 season, a fitting nod for the New York Yankees’ top Triple-A affiliate, which has been tied to the Bronx organization since 2007. The branding is built around power, but Sunday’s result showed a fuller formula: timely hitting, a stabilizing middle stretch and enough execution to close out a tight game rather than simply outslug it.

Lehigh Valley opened with a sacrifice fly in the first and added Otto Kemp’s solo homer in the third, his fifth of the season, to grab a 2-0 lead. Scranton/Wilkes-Barre answered in the bottom of the third when George Lombard Jr. doubled for his 11th extra-base hit at Triple-A and Marco Luciano singled him home, trimming the deficit before the game shifted in the fourth.

That inning belonged to the RailRiders’ young core. Seth Brown and Hardman opened with back-to-back singles, and Ernesto Martinez Jr. followed with a three-run shot to left field that put Scranton/Wilkes-Barre ahead 4-2. Hardman added insurance in the fifth with a solo homer, and the RailRiders stretched the margin to 6-3 in the seventh when Miguel Palma picked up his first hit as a RailRider and Jonathan Ornelas drove him in with an RBI single.

Lehigh Valley kept pressing. Felix Reyes, who launched his 15th homer of the year and second of the week, cut the lead to one with a two-run blast in the eighth, and Christian Cairo came up as the potential tying run in the ninth. Dylan Coleman finished the job, working around the threat to earn his second save of the season after a flyout and a groundball double play ended it.

Elmer Rodriguez picked up the win and improved to 3-3 despite allowing three runs over five innings, while Carlos Lagrange supplied a valuable three-strikeout bridge in relief. The victory left Scranton/Wilkes-Barre at 34-34, moved Lehigh Valley to 32-37, and completed a series split before the RailRiders spent two straight weeks on the road ahead of their June 30 return home against Norfolk.