RailRiders swept in Syracuse, drop first series after doubleheader losses

The RailRiders’ first true stress test arrived in Syracuse, and it ended with a sweep that left a contender-looking roster searching for answers. Scranton/Wilkes-Barre dropped both ends of Saturday’s doubleheader at NBT Bank Stadium, 9-4 and 7-4, and fell to 10-10 after losing its first series of the season.

That mattered because this club was built to be tested. Shelley Duncan came back for his fourth straight year as manager after winning International League Manager of the Year honors in 2025, and the Opening Day roster carried nine players with 40-man status, five of the Yankees’ Top 30 prospects and 15 players with major league service time. Against Syracuse, all that depth still could not keep the Mets from turning the series into a power contest the RailRiders could not win.

Game one turned on the long ball almost immediately. Ryan Clifford opened the scoring with his first homer of the season in the first inning, and Syracuse never let go. Scranton/Wilkes-Barre answered in the third when Ernesto Martinez Jr. walked, scored on Jonathan Ornelas’s triple after Cristian Pache nearly hauled it in at the wall, and came home on Jasson Dominguez’s groundout to make it 3-2. That was as close as it got. Ronny Mauricio, Vidal Brujan and Onix Vega each homered in the third inning to blow the game open, and Max Schuemann added a solo shot in the fourth before a wild pitch brought in one more Syracuse run. Carl Edwards Jr. got the win, while Adam Kloffenstein was tagged for the loss after allowing the first six runs, five earned.

The second game started in much the same way, with Clifford homering again in the second and adding an RBI double in the third. Dom Hamel could never quite slow the Mets down. Syracuse had already built a 7-1 cushion by the time Brandon Waddell handed the ball to the bullpen, and Hamel was charged with all seven runs on nine hits over 4.2 innings.

Scranton/Wilkes-Barre did show some punch late. Spencer Jones homered in the fourth, and Paul DeJong and Payton Henry went deep in the seventh, with Henry’s two-run shot cutting into the margin. But the damage had been done, and the RailRiders’ comeback lived only as a late burst against a bullpen leak that had already opened the door. Waddell earned the win.

The sweep completed a road swing that had gone from manageable to damaging fast. Scranton/Wilkes-Barre lost three straight and four of five away from home, and Syracuse had already beaten the RailRiders 8-6 on April 14 and 5-3 on April 17 before Saturday’s doubleheader settled the series. For a club with big-league names and prospect capital in the room, the lesson was blunt: the bats can flash, but until the pitching depth steadies itself, nights like this can unravel quickly.