Break out the celebratory red, white and blue bunting. The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders are coming home.
After starting the season with nine road games, the RailRiders play for the first time in 2025 at PNC Field when they host the Rochester Red Wings on Tuesday at 6:35 p.m. in the beginning of a six-game series.
The RailRiders (5-4) are the last team in the International League to have a home game.
This is the 36th home opener in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre franchise history. The team has a record of 17-18 in home openers, having dropped two of the last three. Rochester has been the opponent in a home opener four times (1990, 2000, 2009, 2016) with the Red Wings winning on three occasions. The local team’s lone win came in 2009. Coming off an 8-0 season-opening road trip, the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees won, 11-0, to move to 9-0. Phil Hughes pitched 5.2 innings with no walks and six strikeouts to get the win. Angel Berroa had four hits, including two home runs, and five RBIs. Shelley Duncan, current RailRiders manager, had two hits and one RBI.
Erick Leal (0-1, 3.60 ERA) has the honor of starting the home opener for the RailRiders. The 30-year-old righthander suffered the loss April 2 in Syracuse, allowing two runs and five hits with one walk and seven strikeouts in five innings. That start was his first in affiliated ball since the 2019 season when he pitched 17 games in the Chicago Cubs organization with High-A Myrtle Beach and Double-A Tennessee. From 2021-24, Leal pitched in the Mexican League and was signed by the New York Yankees to a minor-league contract last September.
Through nine games, the RailRiders scored 58 runs, which ranks first in the International League. The Charlotte Knights and Lehigh Valley IronPigs are tied for second with 56 runs.
Ismael Munguia leads the team in batting at .314 (11 for 35). The outfielder hit safely in six of the eight games he played, including a pair of three-hit games.
Everson Pereira is next at .310 (9 for 29) with one home run and six RBIs. The home run came in the seventh inning Sunday at Syracuse, a two-run shot that tied the game at 3. The RailRiders then scored five times in the top of the ninth to win, 8-4.
Jorbit Vivas had a three-run home run to cap that five-run uprising Sunday. It was Vivas’ second home run of the season. He leads the team with nine RBIs and is batting .303 (10 for 33).
T.J. Rumfield leads the team with three home runs. He has eight RBIs and is batting .270 (10 for 37).
Andrew Velazquez is batting .265 (9 for 34) with one home run, five RBIs and a team-high four stolen bases.
After going 2 for 16 in the first five games, Braden Shewmake is 5 for 14 in the last four games and is batting .233 with two home runs and four RBIs.
Rochester, top affiliate of the Washington Nationals, is off to a 2-6 start. After splitting two games in Buffalo, the Red Wings won the first game of a series against Lehigh Valley, but lost the next five.
Third baseman Brady House, the Nationals No. 3 prospect according to MLB.com, is batting .367 (11 for 30) with two doubles, one triple, one home run and six RBIs in eight games. Outfielder Robert Hassell III, the No. 11 prospect, is batting .265 (9 for 34) with two doubles and two RBIs in eight games.
Veteran Francy Cordaro is batting .364 (8 for 22) with one double, one home run and six RBIs in six games.
Following Tuesday’s opener, the series between the RailRiders and Red Wings continues with games Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at 6:35 p.m., Saturday at 4:05 p.m. and Sunday at 1:05 p.m.
