Jonah Tong was spectacular Friday night vs. the Marlins: five-inning win with one earned run, six strikeouts, and no walks.
It very well could have been Friday Night Lights at Citi Field. That’s how big it was in the Mets’ 19-9 victory over the Miami Marlins.
Jonah Tong’s anticipated Major League debut brought out flashbulbs mixed with cheers. Fans could sense the anticipation as soon as they departed the 7 train or LIRR at Mets-Willets Point. The reason is that Tong is the most hyped Mets pitching prospect since Bill Pulsipher made his MLB debut against the Houston Astros on June 17, 1995.
Everyone has been hearing about Tong since spring training. He backed up the hype in the minors by striking out 162 hitters in 102 innings with a 1.76 ERA in 20 starts at Double-A Binghamton and followed it up with 17 strikeouts and three walks in 11⅔ scoreless innings at Triple-A Syracuse.
Those performances became increasingly hard to ignore with Sean Manaea’s and Kodai Senga’s mound struggles. Besides, the Mets starters as a whole have been mediocre at best. Clay Holmes has never gone this deep as a starter before, and Frankie Montas was a bust. So, outside of David Peterson, it was hard to trust anyone in the starting rotation.
That mediocrity has shown in the results. Since July 28, when the San Diego Padres swept them at Petco Park, the starters have generally been ineffective, the team has struggled to hit with runners in scoring position, and the bullpen has blown saves.
Before things really got out of hand, it became a necessity for the Mets to call up Nolan McLean and Tong. Whew! Relief!
McLean has made an impression in three of his starts, the first Met rookie starting pitcher to win all three. He has a 0.89 ERA and a 0.69 WHIP with 21 strikeouts in 20⅓ ⅓ innings overall, and on Wednesday night, he capped a sweep of the Phillies by throwing eight shutout innings.
Now it was up to Tong to replicate what McLean had done, and he did. The crowd cheered when the 22-year-old threw his first strike to Xavier Edwards, and then got him out on a fly ball. They cheered again when he got Jakob Marsee to fly out on one pitch. The oohs and aahs continued after Agustin Ramirez popped out on Tong’s first pitch for the final out. First inning performance: three outs on six pitches.
Marlins starter Eury Perez couldn’t match up, taken out in the first inning after throwing 39 pitches, and that was after the Mets put up a crooked number of five runs on the power of Juan Soto’s two-run home run and Brandon Nimmo’s three-run blast. Five batters were at the plate and scored (34 pitches) before Perez got that elusive first out.
After a 25-minute wait, Tong was back for his second inning of work. This time, he threw 20 pitches before having to take a seat for another wait. His Mets put seven runs on the scoreboard, making it 12-0 after two.
Tong! (AP photo)
The only thing lacking in Tong’s night up to that point was getting his first K. He got it the third after he caught Joey Wiemer looking. The team celebrated by displaying a maple leaf on the Citi Field scoreboard (Tong grew up in Ontario, Canada), together with the Jumbotron showing Tong’s parents enjoying the moment.
In the fifth inning, Tong struggled a bit. He allowed two singles to Troy Johnston and Wagaman, and Edwards got on base. Two fielding gaffes compounded the situation: Francisco Lindor failed to catch the ball thrown by Brett Baty for the second out, and Marsee got on base after Alonso failed to field the ball that would have been the second out. That mistake enabled Wagaman to score. After Ramirez fouled out to the catcher for the second out, Tong gave up a single to Otto Lopez, scoring Edwards and Marsee. Tong got out of the inning by striking out Liam Hicks.
There is nothing so relentlessly joyful as homegrown prospects flourishing and providing a spark for the ball club and buzz in the city. That’s the case here with the Mets, who have found their mojo with the call-ups of McLean and Tong. The fielders have an extra bounce in their step, the hitting has come together, and pitchers are feeding off each other in throwing zeroes.
The Mets are in a good place thanks to a couple of call-ups, and Citi Field has become a happy place again.
