IronPigs rally twice to sweep RailRiders in doubleheader at PNC Field
Keaton Anthony homered in both ends of a rain-delayed twin bill as Lehigh Valley rallied past Scranton/Wilkes-Barre 7-4 and 6-3 for a sweep.
Lehigh Valley treated Friday’s doubleheader at PNC Field like a stress test and passed it twice, rallying from behind in both games to sweep Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. Keaton Anthony’s two-run homers in each win were the common thread, turning two tense games into a statement night for an IronPigs lineup that refused to blink.
The first game resumed with one out in the top of the fourth after Thursday’s rainout, and the RailRiders had opened the suspended game with early momentum. Oswaldo Cabrera led off the bottom of the fourth with a home run, and George Lombard Jr. later scored on a wild pitch for a 2-0 lead before Lehigh Valley answered with four runs in the sixth. Dylan Moore was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to force in a run, Felix Reyes followed with an RBI infield single that also came with an error, Robert Moore added an RBI single in the seventh, and Anthony delivered the decisive swing in the eighth with a two-run homer that pushed the IronPigs back in control, 7-4. Nolan Hoffman closed the final two innings scoreless for the save.
That opener, which was officially completed on Friday, drew 3,708 fans and carried a first pitch of 7:08 p.m. after a 1:06 rain delay. The suspended game had been set to resume at 3:35 p.m. with the scoreless fourth inning still on the board, and Lehigh Valley turned the delayed finish into a comeback win that never felt settled until Anthony’s blast gave the bullpen breathing room.
The second game was even messier, and Lehigh Valley kept its poise through it. Scranton/Wilkes-Barre again struck first on a Lombard Jr. leadoff homer, but Bryan De La Cruz answered with an RBI fielder’s choice before Anthony changed the game again with a go-ahead two-run homer in the fifth, right after benches-clearing tension escalated and ejections followed. Carter Kieboom later added a three-run homer as the IronPigs finished the seven-inning game with a 6-3 win.
The sweep came against a RailRiders club that had beaten Lehigh Valley 5-2 on June 9 and taken an 8-5 extra-inning loss on June 10, so Friday’s results flipped the tone of the series in one night. Anthony entered the day hitting .358 with a .448 on-base percentage and a 1.014 OPS in Triple-A, and the way he kept punishing late innings made it harder to treat him as anything less than a legitimate organizational name to watch. Lehigh Valley left Moosic at 32-35, while Scranton/Wilkes-Barre fell to 32-34.
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