Columbus erupts in fifth to beat RailRiders 6-3

Yanquiel Fernández gave Scranton/Wilkes-Barre the start it wanted, but Columbus turned one fifth inning into the game’s hinge and walked away with a 6-3 win that felt settled long before the final out. Under the lights at Huntington Park, with MLB Network carrying the matchup nationally, the Clippers erased a 3-1 deficit by piling up four runs in the bottom of the fifth and never gave the RailRiders another opening.

Fernández opened the night by launching his team-best 16th home run of the season, a 348-foot drive in the first inning that put Scranton/Wilkes-Barre ahead 2-0 and extended his homer streak to three straight games. Columbus chipped back against Dom Hamel in the second, then watched Oswaldo Cabrera answer with a solo shot in the fifth to stretch the RailRiders’ lead to 3-1. At that point, the game still belonged to the visitors, but only for a few more batters.

The turning point came immediately. Columbus sent four hitters across in the bottom of the fifth and took control with a rally built on pressure rather than one swing. Ralphy Velazquez delivered the biggest blow, a two-run single that flipped the score and turned a tight deficit into a lead Columbus could protect. The inning exposed the RailRiders’ missed chance to shut the door after Cabrera’s homer, and it marked the kind of quick reversal that has defined this Clippers lineup all series.

Kody Huff added another cushion with a solo home run in the sixth, pushing Columbus out to a 6-3 advantage and closing the door on any late Scranton/Wilkes-Barre push. Dom Hamel took the loss after allowing five runs, one earned, while walking five and striking out four, a line that reflected how quickly his command slipped once Columbus found the inning it needed. The RailRiders finished with two-hit nights from Fernández, Cabrera and Tyler Hardman, but they could not recover after the fifth-inning swing.

Yorman Gómez made his Triple-A debut after being activated from the injured list earlier in the day and struck out eight over 3.2 innings without factoring into the decision. Trenton Denholm earned the win in relief, and Franco Aleman finished for his eighth save as Columbus improved after already taking a dramatic extra-inning game and a high-scoring outing earlier in the series. The teams were meeting in Columbus for the first time since 2023, and the Clippers looked every bit like a club eager to make that home stage count.