Rodriguez earns first Triple-A win as RailRiders top Syracuse 4-1

Elmer Rodriguez gave Scranton/Wilkes-Barre exactly the kind of start that can steady a series, and Ernesto Martinez Jr. supplied the kind of power that can tilt one. Together, they carried the RailRiders to a 4-1 win over Syracuse on Wednesday night at NBT Bank Stadium, with Rodriguez working 5.2 scoreless innings for his first Triple-A victory and Martinez driving in two runs with his fourth homer of the season.

The RailRiders set the tone early and never really gave it back. Max Schuemann drew a two-out walk in the first inning, Spencer Jones followed with a double, and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre had a 1-0 lead before Syracuse could settle in. Martinez widened that margin in the second with his second homer of the series, a swing that kept the Mets in chase mode the rest of the way.

Rodriguez, the Yankees’ No. 3 prospect, handled the rest with poise. The 22-year-old right-hander from Trujillo Alto, Puerto Rico, allowed only two hits, two walks and a hit batter while striking out six. He did not let Syracuse cash in on its limited traffic, and each scoreless frame pushed the RailRiders closer to a clean road win after Tuesday night’s 8-6 loss had turned the matchup into a back-and-forth fight.

The sharpest test came in the seventh, when Syracuse loaded the bases and threatened to flip the game with one swing. Brad Hanner shut that door, striking out Hayden Senger and getting Jackson Cluff to foul out to preserve the shutout. That escape mattered because it kept Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in full control before Syracuse finally cracked the scoreboard.

Nick Morabito’s solo homer in the eighth was the Mets’ only run, and by then the outcome was already slipping away. Carson Coleman finished the night with a perfect ninth, striking out two for his first Triple-A save and sealing a win that felt cleaner than the scoreline suggested.

For Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, the bigger takeaway was the combination. Rodriguez’s first Triple-A win and Martinez’s continued power surge gave the RailRiders a young-core answer on a night when Spencer Jones also helped manufacture the early lead. Martinez, a 26-year-old left-handed first baseman, had already jolted the series opener with a two-run homer at 116.4 mph, the hardest tracked exit velocity in franchise history since 2021. On Wednesday, he did not need to hit it that hard to leave the same impression: when the starter sets the tone and the middle of the order finishes the job, the RailRiders can look a lot more dangerous than a routine April team.