Rochester’s run to a title ended with the kind of finish that fit its whole season: messy, tense, and just good enough when it mattered most.
The Nationals’ Triple-A affiliate wrapped up its first International League championship since 1997 with a 3-2 win over Memphis on Thursday night at AutoZone Park, then punched its ticket to Saturday’s Triple-A National Championship Game at Las Vegas Ballpark. The Red Wings will face the winner of the Pacific Coast League.
The clincher took every bit of grit Rochester could muster. The club used eight pitchers to get through the night, and the lead changed hands late before Rochester landed the final blows.
Riley Adams got the Red Wings started with an RBI single in the first. Memphis answered with a 2-1 edge in the seventh, but Rochester kept coming.
Andrew Pinckney doubled home the tying run in the eighth, and Cortland Lawson followed with the go-ahead RBI single after Sam Petersen (WAS No. 28) left the game mid-at-bat in the sixth.
“We’ve been the 'never say die' Wings all year long,” Rochester manager Matthew LeCroy said in his on-field postgame interview. “Luckily for us, we scored one more than they did. And I’m super proud of everybody.”
That win capped a stretch in which Rochester went from dominant regular season to knockout baseball. The Red Wings led the minors with 90 wins before collecting the two biggest victories of their 2026 season over the past three days. Now they head to Las Vegas with a group that has carried the load all year and has a shot at bringing another trophy back to western New York.
A handful of prospects sat at the center of it all.
Seaver King, INF (WSH No. 4 / MLB No. 68), made an immediate impact after arriving on May 18.
The Nationals’ system Hitter of the Year put up 16 homers and an .858 OPS in 77 games for Rochester, and he finished as the Washington system leader in batting average (.303) and OPS (.898) among full-season qualifiers, including his time at Double-A Harrisburg. He brings infield flexibility, but his 70-grade run tool gives him another way to tilt a game.
In the postseason, the 23-year-old took things up a notch, including a three-hit performance in Game 1 against Memphis that featured a solo homer.
Trey Lipscomb supplied the pop in the middle of the order, finishing with 32 home runs in 134 games, the most in the Nationals’ organization and the third-most at Triple-A in 2026. He also drove in 94 runs and posted an .861 OPS. Lipscomb, who has 64 games of MLB experience, continued to show improved versatility on defense in his age-26 season and put himself in position to help Washington again down the line.
Luis Perales, RHP (WSH No. 12), arrived in the organization as part of the offseason swap with Boston that sent lefty Jake Bennett the other way. He handled Triple-A well before getting a late August promotion to the majors.
Across 25 appearances, including 19 starts, Perales went 7-5 with a 3.64 ERA and struck out 97 in 96 1/3 innings. His four-pitch mix is headlined by a 70-grade fastball, which hit 100.8 mph in his big league debut for the Nationals.
He later worked in relief and remains a major part of Washington’s pitching picture.
Yohandy Morales, a first baseman, gave Rochester another reliable bat in the lineup. He hit 25 home runs in 104 games and led the club with an .882 OPS, then carried that production to Washington after his Sept. 1 promotion, hitting four homers in his first 15 MLB games. The 24-year-old corner infielder made a major leap at Triple-A in 2026, improving his OPS by more than 150 points from his 95-game Rochester stint a year ago.
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What stands out most is how complete the profile looks right now. Willits paired extra-base power with speed, drawing plenty of walks while piling up doubles, triples and stolen bases along the way. MLB Pipeline still projects his arrival around the 2028 season, which means there is time for him to keep growing, but the early returns suggest Washington may already have a prospect who is making a real case to shape its future sooner rather than later. [Read more 🡒]
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Nationals Could Face A Painful Young Infield Decision This Offseason
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That creates an uncomfortable kind of flexibility for Paul Toboni, who will have to balance player development against the chance to use from that group as trade currency. If the Nationals want to add pitching without spending heavily in free agency, some of those young bats could become the obvious path, and the organization has to decide whether to keep building around them or turn one of them into help now. [Read more 🡒]