When the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders host their intrastate rival, the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, in their final homestand of the regular season this week at PNC Field in northeastern Pennsylvania, they will be looking to do three things.
First and foremost is their continued pursuit of the International League second-half title. Entering Tuesday, the RailRiders are 43-20 and in first place in the second-half standings. They lead the second-place Syracuse Mets (39-24) by four games. The Toledo Mud
Hens (37-26) are in third place, six games back. The Indianapolis Indians (36-27) are in fourth place, seven games behind, and Lehigh Valley (35-27) is fifth, 7.5 games out.
After winning four of six games last week in Worcester, the RailRiders will be in the strange position of rooting for the Red Sox this week as they begin a series in Syracuse against the Mets.
With 12 games remaining in the regular season, the RailRiders’ magic number to clinch the second-half title is nine. Any combination of RailRiders wins and Syracuse losses totaling nine will secure the second-half crown for the RailRiders and advance them to the best-of-three league final against first-half champion, the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp, starting September 23rd.
Lehigh Valley, of course, is looking to use the series this week to decrease that 7.5-game deficit and stay in the second-half race. The IronPigs have been hot of late, winning 14 of their last 17 games.
The second item on the RailRides’ to-do list this week is the chase for the best overall record in the International League, which is simply for bragging rights.
The RailRiders, IronPigs, and Jumbo Shrimp all have 81 wins. However, the RailRiders have 54 losses, Lehigh Valley has 55 and Jacksonville 57. That gives the RailRiders a one-half game lead over the IronPigs for the best record and a 1.5-game lead over the Jumbo Shrimp. Indianapolis (78-59) is lurking four games back and the Durham Bulls (77-59) are 4.5 games out. Jacksonville is scheduled to begin a series against the Memphis Redbirds this week.
Finally, this week’s series will decide the winner of the IronRail Trophy.
Since the 2013 season, the team that takes the season series claims the award. The RailRiders have won it seven times, including each of the past two seasons (2013, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2021, 2023, 2024). In the first year of the trophy, the teams split the season series, 8-8. The tiebreaker was the team that won the final game on the series, which the RailRiders did, 3-2. Lehigh Valley has taken the trophy four times (2014, 2017, 2019, 2022).
This year, the RailRiders lead the series, 8-7. Lehigh Valley took two of three to open the season in Allentown. The RailRiders won three of five when the teams met July 2-6 and four of seven on the road Aug. 5-10.
The Yankees’ minor league season is gradually coming to a close, with Rookie ball over for awhile now, and A-ball wrapping up this past week as High-A Hudson Valley and Low-A Tampa missed the playoffs (narrowly, in the Renegades’ case). The Double-A Somerset Patriots could clinch a playoff spot this week, which will end their regular season before a possible postseason series beginning September 16th. Scranton/Wilkes-Barre has games scheduled through the 21st, but is of course still dreaming of more.
