RailRiders split doubleheader with Red Wings, win series at PNC Field

Rain pushed Saturday’s game aside and turned Sunday at PNC Field into a doubleheader test of depth, and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre passed just enough to leave with the series. The RailRiders beat Rochester 6-1 in Game 1, then fell 9-4 in Game 2, but still claimed the set four games to two and moved to 14-12. Rochester dropped to 13-14.

Game 1 swung after the Red Wings struck first on Phillip Glasser’s RBI double in the second inning. Scranton/Wilkes-Barre answered immediately with a two-run homer in the bottom half from Paul DeJong, his team-leading sixth of the season and a 402-foot shot that changed the tone of the afternoon. Anthony Volpe, in the fourth game of his rehab assignment with the Yankees’ Triple-A club, went 2-for-4 with two RBI and continued a strong week after homering in his first rehab game on April 22. Dom Hamel did the rest on the mound, working 5.0 innings, allowing one run on four hits and striking out four for his first win of the year.

The second game showed how quickly a seven-inning doubleheader can turn on one inning. Brendan Beck, the Yankees’ No. 21 prospect, took the ball against Shinnosuke Ogasawara and was hit hard, allowing nine runs on 10 hits as Rochester seized control with a four-run third inning. Robert Hassell III and Andrew Pinckney each drove in three runs for the Red Wings, who finished with 10 hits and left Scranton/Wilkes-Barre chasing from behind almost immediately.

Even with the loss, the RailRiders got what mattered most from the day. They took four of six from a division opponent, got meaningful production from a major-league rehab assignment in the opener, and saw one starter and one lineup spot deliver enough in Game 1 to protect the series. The split snapped Scranton/Wilkes-Barre’s three-game winning streak, but the series win still reflected the kind of organizational depth that can carry a club through rainouts, doubleheaders and all the tactical strain that comes with them. Game 2 drew 2,957 fans to PNC Field, where the temperature was 59 degrees, partly cloudy, and the first pitch came at 3:41 p.m. with a game time of 2 hours and 25 minutes.