Corona grand slam, Beck’s gem lift RailRiders past Syracuse 7-0

Kenedy Corona turned one pitch into a rout, and Brendan Beck made sure Syracuse never had a chance to answer. Scranton/Wilkes-Barre rolled to a 7-0 win at PNC Field on Thursday, using a six-run fourth inning and 5.2 scoreless innings from Beck to take control of a STEM school day crowd and improve to 21-18.

The RailRiders struck first in the opening inning when Marco Luciano doubled and Oswaldo Cabrera punched him home, putting Syracuse in a hole before the Mets could settle in. That was just the start of a night built around Beck’s command. The Yankees’ No. 21 prospect allowed only one hit, one walk and one other baserunner, a fourth-inning single by Christian Arroyo, while striking out nine to match his career high on 80 pitches.

That strikeout total carried extra weight because Beck had already shown this ceiling before. He also fanned nine on July 20, 2025, in a five-inning, one-hit outing for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, and this was another reminder that the arm the Yankees just brought to the majors on May 7 has not lost its Triple-A bite. Beck did not just survive. He dictated the game from the first inning on and never let Syracuse build any pressure.

The decisive blow came in the fourth, when Scranton/Wilkes-Barre strung together three straight singles to load the bases with nobody out. Jonathan Ornelas followed with a two-run hit, Duke Ellis reached on a fielder’s choice, and then Corona stepped in against an 83 mph slider and launched it to left-center for a grand slam. It was Corona’s first home run as a RailRider, and it came with exactly the kind of force that changes a game instantly. Corona entered the night with three homers in 2026 MiLB play and 61 for his minor league career, but this was the one that mattered to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

The bullpen finished the job without a wobble. Brad Hanner worked a clean seventh on 10 pitches, all strikes, and Kervin Castro struck out five over the final two innings. For a club still trying to stack complete games together, this was the blueprint: Beck set the tone, Corona broke it open, and the RailRiders never had to look back.