Spencer Jones powers RailRiders past Buffalo with two homers, grand slam

Spencer Jones didn’t just pad a box score at PNC Field. He changed the temperature of a series-clinching game, and he did it with the kind of raw power that keeps Yankees watchers glued to Triple-A.

Jones finished 2-for-4 with two home runs and five RBIs as Scranton/Wilkes-Barre rolled past Buffalo 7-1 on May 3 in Moosic, Pennsylvania, locking up the series 4-2. His first blast came in the bottom of the first inning off rehabbing José Berríos and left the bat at 117.4 mph, the hardest-hit ball by a Yankees organization player since Giancarlo Stanton on Aug. 24, 2025. Minor League Baseball’s video clip tagged it as Jones’ ninth homer of the season. By the end of the afternoon, he had added a grand slam that made a comfortable lead look like a runaway.

That second swing was the one that broke Buffalo. After the RailRiders loaded the bases in the fourth inning, Jones drove a 111.1 mph grand slam to dead center and turned the frame into a six-run avalanche. Scranton/Wilkes-Barre sent all nine batters to the plate in the inning, with Seth Brown adding a two-run homer and Payton Henry chipping in run production as the offense kept stacking pressure on a Bisons staff that never found an escape hatch.

For a Yankees club still watching its outfield pipeline for a bat that can matter soon, this was more than one loud afternoon from a 6-foot-7, 240-pound prospect. Jones entered the day hitting .231/.351/.500 with 16 runs, five homers and 24 RBIs in 22 games through the previous Thursday, and MLB Pipeline’s knock on him has never been the power. It has been whether the strikeouts and swing-and-miss will keep him from turning thunder into reliable production.

That’s why this game lands differently. Jones already owns the kind of exit velocity that makes evaluators stop scrolling, and the 117.4 mph shot against Berríos is the sort of number that travels fast through an organization. The RailRiders backed it with clean pitching, too, using six arms to hold Buffalo to five hits. Zach Messinger earned the win with 2.1 scoreless innings, and Buffalo managed just 1-for-5 with runners in scoring position while stranding six. When Jones is making that level of contact, the margin disappears quickly.