Brandon Lewis powers York as Atlantic League first half ends

Brandon Lewis led the Atlantic League in home runs, RBI, slugging, runs, total bases and extra-base hits as the first half closed, and York still looked like the club most built to chase another title. Lewis finished with 19 homers, 59 RBI, a .776 slugging percentage and 47 runs, numbers that explain why the Revolution sat at the center of the league’s power conversation even after the break arrived on Thursday, July 2.

Lewis did more than stack categories. He delivered a three-homer game on May 5 at High Point and then crushed two three-run homers in York’s 14-6 win at Lancaster on June 14, the kind of damage that turns a leaderboard into a pennant race story. He also ranked second in OPS at 1.186, third in batting average at .347 and tied for fourth in hits with 59, which is the difference between a one-dimensional slugger and the hitter opponents had to game-plan around every night.

York’s second-half edge does not rest on the lineup alone. Braden Scott, signed by the Revolution on February 25, reached 103 strikeouts and punctuated the stretch with 12 strikeouts in York’s July 3 second-half opener against Lancaster. He also threw seven shutout innings in a two-hit effort on June 14, giving York the kind of front-line arm that can carry a club through the grind between now and the Division Championship Series, which begins September 15.

Ramon Santos posted the other eye-catching first-half line, and it came with a twist. The Long Island right-hander led the league with nine saves and left with a 1-1 record, a 0.95 ERA, three runs allowed, seven hits and 42 strikeouts in 19.0 innings when his contract was transferred to Saraperos de Saltillo on June 27. He had a 0.55 ERA over his previous 23 appearances dating back to 2025 and owned a Ducks career mark of 11-3 with a 0.64 ERA and 29 saves in 82 games, numbers that speak louder about dominance than about direct impact on the Atlantic League playoff board once he was gone.

The league’s first-half titles went to Hagerstown in the North and Southern Maryland in the South, with Southern Maryland claiming its first first-half crown since 2022 and Hagerstown completing a stunning bounce from 31-95 in 2025 to 39-21 with three games left in the half. York and Lancaster have split the last four league championships, two apiece, so the path to a different champion still runs through the same Pennsylvania corridor. The league also named High Point’s Luke Napleton and Hagerstown’s Eddy Demurias as June Players of the Month, a reminder that the second half starts with more than one race still alive.