RailRiders outslug IronPigs 8-7, hold on for series win

Scranton/Wilkes-Barre built a lead that should have settled the game, then spent the final innings proving it could survive its own volatility. The RailRiders outlasted Lehigh Valley 8-7 in Allentown on Thursday night, collecting their second win of the series after an early surge, a late scare and just enough relief work to hold on.

The game flipped quickly after Lehigh Valley opened with a bases-loaded walk in the first. Scranton/Wilkes-Barre answered with a five-run third that looked like the start of a rout. George Lombard Jr. drew a walk, Yanquiel Fernández singled, Marco Luciano reached on a fielder’s choice and an error, Seth Brown added a bases-loaded single and Ernesto Martínez Jr. finished the inning with a two-run homer. In one frame, the RailRiders had turned a 1-0 deficit into a 5-1 cushion and seemed to have complete control.

That control never really held. Former RailRider Bryan De La Cruz cut into the margin with a two-run homer in the third, and the IronPigs kept pressing from there. Fernández answered with a solo homer in the fourth, and Martínez Jr. later tripled and scored on Jonathan Ornelas’ single to stretch the lead to 7-3. Scranton/Wilkes-Barre kept landing punches, but Lehigh Valley kept getting back up, which made the final scoreboard look far less comfortable than the early innings suggested.

The key insurance run came from Ali Sánchez, whose 426-foot homer in the seventh proved vital once the IronPigs surged again. Felix Reyes hammered a two-run homer in the fifth, then Christian Cairo delivered a two-run single in the eighth to pull Lehigh Valley within one and turn the final inning into a survival exercise for the RailRiders.

That tension made the pitching line impossible to ignore. Dom Hamel allowed five runs on six hits over 4.2 innings and did not factor in the decision, while Max Lazar, working as an MLB rehabber, took the loss after surrendering four unearned runs in the third. Scranton/Wilkes-Barre steadied itself after that with Kervin Castro escaping a bases-loaded jam in the sixth and firing 1.1 scoreless innings to earn the win. Brad Hanner then struck out two in a clean ninth for his second save.

The final result was the kind of Triple-A win that carries two meanings at once. It was a useful series victory, and it was also a warning that a lineup capable of building an early four-run edge still needed the bullpen and game management to be sharper to finish the job cleanly.