It began April 4, 2013, with the first pitch from Vidal Nu\u00f1o to Pawtucket\u2019s Brock Holt. It ended Sept. 19, 2026, when Stephen Jones of the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp uncorked a wild pitch with Kenedy Corona batting, enabling Yanquiel Fernandez to score the winning run from third base.<\/p>\n
In between, there have been a lot of highs and lows and memorable moments for the Scranton\/Wilkes-Barre Triple-A franchise as the RailRiders.<\/p>\n
Since minor-league baseball returned to northeastern Pennsylvania in 1989, the franchise has been known by three nicknames. First was the Red Barons as a Philadelphia Phillies affiliate until 2006. In 2007, it became a New York Yankees affiliate and adopted the same moniker as the parent club. In 2013, to coincide with the major renovations of its home, PNC Field, it changed from Yankees to RailRiders, which was the winner of a fan name-the-team contest and honored the region having the first trolley system in the United States.<\/p>\n
Now, after 13 seasons, the RailRiders\u2019 final ride has pulled into the station. The name is being rebranded, and the new one will be announced in November.<\/p>\n
As the RailRiders, Scranton\/Wilkes-Barre finished with an all-time record of 1,028 wins and 834 losses. Only three times did it have a losing season: 2013, 2014, and 2023.<\/p>\n
Six times the RailRiders made the playoffs. Three times they lost in the International League championship series (2017, 2018, 2025). But in 2016, they defeated the Gwinnett Braves in four games to capture the IL title, then beat the Pacific Coast League champion El Paso Chihuahuas to claim the Triple-A national championship.<\/p>\n
There were plenty of memorable games throughout franchise history. One came on September 3, 2019. The RailRiders and Syracuse Mets tied for first place in the International League North Division and played a one-game playoff to decide the title. Syracuse led, 7-1, heading into the bottom of the seventh inning, but the RailRiders scored five runs to pull within 7-6. Syracuse scored six runs in the top of the eighth to make it 13-6. But the RailRiders rallied for eight runs in the bottom of the eighth to win, 14-13.<\/p>\n
Three of the franchise\u2019s seven no-hitters were thrown by RailRiders. Luis Gil, Reggie McClain and Stephen Ridings combined for one against Rochester on July 21, 2021. Sean Boyle tossed a seven-inning no-no in the second game of a doubleheader on August 19, 2021, at Worcester. This season, on June 5th at Syracuse, Brendan Beck and Carson Coleman teamed up for one.<\/p>\n
Even the team\u2019s final game as the RailRiders will long be remembered. Trailing Jacksonville 4-0 after two innings, they rallied to tie the game at 5 and force extra innings. With no arms left in the bullpen, position player Edinson Duran came on to get the final out in the top of the 10th with the bases loaded. The RailRiders won in the bottom of the 10th when Fernandez scored on Jones\u2019 wild pitch.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was pretty poetic, tying the game in the eighth, showing no quit, could have easily rolled over. Then going extras and having Duran come in (to pitch) was a blast,\u201d Beck said. \u201cHe works his butt off, so for him to go out there and pick us up like that and keep that inning at a zero, it felt like there was no way we weren\u2019t going to score in the bottom of the 10th. It was an awesome game, great way to end the season.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beck became the fourth player in franchise history and second RailRider to be named International League Pitcher of the Year, joining Greg Weissert in 2022. This season, Beck led the IL in earned-run average (2.93), strikeouts (151), innings (135.1), WHIP (1.06), opponents\u2019 batting average (.210), and tied for second in wins (10).<\/p>\n
Ben Gamel became the third player in franchise history and lone RailRider to be named IL Player of the Year in 2016. One day after winning the honor, the Yankees traded him to the Seattle Mariners for minor-league pitchers Jio Orozco and Juan De Paula.<\/p>\n
Many notable players have worn a RailRiders uniform.<\/p>\n
Hall of Famer Derek Jeter spent seven games on a rehab assignment in early July 2013 while recovering from a broken ankle. During his time here, it became a daily game to see where he was spotted in downtown Scranton.<\/p>\n
Later that month, Alex Rodriguez played three games here while coming back from offseason hip surgery. He hit a two-run home run in the second at-bat of his first game.<\/p>\n
Curtis Granderson and D.J. LeMahieu were other notable Yankees who rehabbed here over the years. This season, pitchers Gerrit Cole, Max Fried, Carlos Rodon, catcher Austin Wells, and outfielder Cody Bellinger all had rehab stints.<\/p>\n
Current Yankees slugger Aaron Judge played 154 games with the RailRiders in 2015 and 2016 and five more games on a rehab assignment in 2019. He totaled 28 home runs and 95 RBIs. Prospects such as Luis Severino, Gary Sanchez, Anthony Volpe, Ben Rice, Cam Schlittler, Spencer Jones, and George Lombard Jr. also spent time here.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of great players have played for the RailRiders,\u201d Beck said. \u201cTo be the last ones to do it is fun. The future is exciting as well. Looking forward to starting something new next year.\u201d<\/p>\n
When manager Shelley Duncan played in Scranton\/Wilkes-Barre from 2007-09, the team was known as the Yankees. But in his four seasons as manager, the term \u201cRailRiders\u201d has come to mean a lot to him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just always think about the character of every team that I\u2019ve had,\u201d said Duncan, whose record as RailRiders manager is 327-195. \u201cI\u2019ve been lucky to be a part of some good groups that fought all the way to the end. Some good memories and some good relationships. Each year has been a different team, and each year has been very special.\u201d<\/p>\n
The new nickname has already been decided, and team officials said it will reflect the \u201cbeauty, heritage and outdoor legacy\u201d of the region. Whatever it is, it will have a tough act to follow. The RailRiders\u2019 era was quite a successful and enjoyable time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It began April 4, 2013, with the first pitch from Vidal Nu\u00f1o to Pawtucket\u2019s Brock Holt. It ended…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":297216,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[178,180,179,97274,65905],"class_list":["post-297215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-yankees-history","tag-yankees-prospects"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=297215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297215\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/297216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}