Two batters into Tuesday night Erie had themselves a 2-0 lead, and for 3 more innings it looked like pitching would once again be the story of the Eastern League championship series. The teams had played a 1-0 game two days early that had seen the only run score on a 9th inning sacrifice fly off the bat of Caleb Ricketts. Instead Reading scored two runs in the 4th thanks to Aidan Miller, and then gave one back, thanks to Aidan Miller, half inning later to make it a ball game. However, this Reading lineup is relentless, and much like game 1 of the division series they exploded. It was Ricketts’ grand slam in the 6th that busted it open, and by the time Carson DeMartini’s grand slam landed in the 8th the game was well over. The 13-4 victory punctuated what had been a great run of play for well over the last month.
In 4 playoff games, Reading won two games by 1 run and the other two by 17 and 9. Their pitching staff had a 2.75 ERA over 36 innings while their offense put up a .879 OPS with more walks than strikeouts. There were times when games hung in the balance, but at no point were they ever looked out of it or not in control.
Offensively it was a full team effort. Yes, Ricketts had the two go ahead hits in the championship series, but Carson DeMartini had a big series and Aroon Escobar was at the center of the division series game 1 explosion, and despite a quiet postseason team MVP Bryan Rincon had the big home run in the second game against Hartford. They grinded at bats, and were especially brutal against the Yard Goats and Seawolves relievers.
Al Pedrique managed his pitching staff excellently over the 4 games as well. Gage Wood got his way through Game 1 before reaching his season innings limit. Likewise, Cody Bowker did his job in the Division Series Game 2. Luke Russo danced out of trouble against Erie in the first game. Without Wood for Game 2 of the Championship Series they two more of a bullpen game and Ryan Dromboski allowed only those two runs before Jack Dallas had a heroic 2.2 innings of relief. Mavis Graves was their stopper all postseason and was summoned for Zyhir Hope and Thayron Liranzo in big spots in both games, and Pedrique seems to have managed him on Tuesday like he would need to lean on him in a Game 3. Estibenzon Jimenez gave up two home runs, one of the fairly meaningless, but got the big outs when he needed to and those two solo shots were the only base runners he allowed.
The real breakout was Wen-Hui Pan who didn’t always have his best stuff, but went two innings in the clincher and 4 over three appearances overall. He allowed a single walk, and struck out 6 batters. Pan had fallen a bit behind Christian McGowan down the stretch, but supplanted his fellow righty in the high leverage trust order in the postseason.
While the season started with Reading loaded with more prospects than other affiliates, and ended much the same, it certainly was not that throughout the journey. Wood and Bowker reinforced a flagging pitching staff that Braydon Tucker, Luke Russo, and Adam Seminaris had somehow held together. Jimenez and Graves more than replaced Alex McFarlane in the second half. Injury comebacks by McGowan and Pan helped reinforce the pitching, especially as they got stronger and more confident in their stuff.
But really the story is the lineup. Bryan Rincon had a breakout year, Raylin Heredia stayed on the field all season and was able to put together a very solid year, and Aroon Escobar bounced back in a big way to end it. But Carson DeMartini and Dante Nori missed enormous chunks of the season to injury. Pedro Leon and Caleb Ricketts ended up bit players on this team after being squeezed out of the IronPigs roster. Then at third base was Aidan Miller. The Phillies top prospect entering the year was supposed to be rocketing towards the majors, and instead spent it rehabbing in Clearwater. Finally back on the field he returned to his 2025 team at a new position, and was in the center of clinching game.
It was a fun ride over the last month and a great capstone to the 2026 minor league season.