Washington Nationals Minor League Update: Major events in the minors

Nationals struggle, but encouraging news down on the farm on opening weekend for three affiliates …

WASHINGTON – It was a rough weekend for the Nationals, as their lack of starting pitching was exposed against the New York Mets while losing three of four games.

The news was more encouraging down on the farm as three affiliates of Washington began their season this past weekend.

Brady House, in his second game at the low Single-A level, reached base all five times up on Saturday for Fredericksburg in a game in Salisbury, MD, against the Delmarva Shorebirds.

House is hitting .500 in his first three games with the Nats’ Virginia farm team after he was drafted in the first round last year by Washington.

Then on Sunday, starting pitcher Andry Lara threw three scoreless innings and winning pitcher Karlo Seijas didn’t allow a run in four frames as Fredericksburg won 7-0 at Delmarva.

The FredNats are 2-1 on the young season.

“Lara set the tone from pitch one on,” manager and Richmond native Jake Lowery of Fredericksburg wrote to Federal Baseball on Sunday.

“His heater and command were working well today.”

“Seijas worked and competed his tail off with four innings of inducing some weak contact,” added Lowery, the Johnny Bench catcher of the year at JMU in 2011.

“He did his job and threw up shutdown innings after we scored.”

Jeremy De La Rosa had an RBI for the Nationals at Salisbury while Jacob Young had two triples – giving him three on the young season.

Young was taken in the seventh round by the Nationals last year out of the University of Florida.

Fredericksburg plays its first home game on Tuesday as the Nationals welcome the Carolina Mudcats to Virginia Credit Union Stadium.

Dustin Saenz started for Fredericksburg on Saturday and gave up three runs in 4.2 innings.

Bryan Caceres, a right-hander, is slated to start for Fredericksburg on Tuesday. He is from Panama and turned 22 in February.

Also on Sunday, the high Single-A Wilmington Blue Rocks improved to 2-1 with a 4-1 win at home over Brooklyn.

Starting pitcher Jake Irvin – a fourth-round pick in 2018 – didn’t allow a run in three innings while left fielder Yasel Antuna had two hits while batting third in the order.

In the first three games this season, Antuna is hitting .571 for the Blue Rocks, who begin a series Tuesday at Baltimore affiliate Aberdeen in Maryland.

Double-A Harrisburg is also 2-1 after a 5-3 win at Altoona on Sunday.

K.J. Harrison of the Senators had two more hits and is hitting .600 with two homers in his first 10 at-bats.

The Senators have their first home game on Tuesday against the Portland Sea Dogs.

On Saturday for Triple-A Rochester – which began its season April 5 – catcher Tres Barrera and Donovan Casey each had two hits for the Red Wings.

The Red Wings fell to 4-2 with a 2-1 loss on Sunday to Toledo despite a strong outing from starting pitcher Jackson Tetreault.

He gave up just one run on three hits in five innings. He was a seventh-round pick in 2017 by the Nationals.