Mets' Jonah Tong will stay in rotation after terrible outing
Mets' Jonah Tong looks on from the mound during the first inning against the Texas Rangers on Friday at Citi Field. Credit: Jim McIsaac
Jonah Tong’s third MLB start ended in nightmarish fashion.
Tong lasted only two-thirds of an inning in Friday night’s 8-3 loss to the Rangers at Citi Field, allowing six runs, four hits and three walks. After the game, manager Carlos Mendoza was noncommittal about the highly regarded 22-year-old righthander making another start, saying: “We’ll see.”
But before Saturday afternoon’s game against Texas, Mendoza said Tong will remain in the rotation. “As of right now, he is,” he said. “We got to get through the off day [Monday]. We said we were going to get creative, but we haven’t had any conversations about not having Jonah start a game. So again, it’s fluid. But as of right now, he is in the rotation.”
That was not necessarily a tremendous vote of confidence for Tong, who was choked up when he met the media after Friday’s outing. But Tong, who made only two starts with Triple-A Syracuse before getting called up, and fellow rookies Nolan McLean and Brandon Sproat are with the Mets only because of how disastrous their rotation had been.
That rotation included Kodai Senga, who accepted a demotion to Syracuse on Sept. 5 after going 0-3 with a 5.90 ERA and 1.69 WHIP in his last nine starts. He eventually could be an option to return, though he must spend at least 15 days in Triple-A.
In his first start for Syracuse on Friday, Senga allowed a run and three hits in six innings. Mendoza confirmed he will make another Triple-A start.
“Pretty much every pitch was working, so that’s a really good sign there,” he said.
Tong is 1-2 with an 8.49 ERA, 1.71 WHIP, 13 strikeouts and seven walks in 11 2⁄3 innings.
With the Mets’ playoff chances in the balance, the team is relying on McLean, Tong and Sproat — their Nos. 3, 4 and 5 prospects, each of whom has debuted in the past month — to save the ship from sinking. Does that put any added pressure on them?
“I don’t think there should be,” David Peterson told Newsday. “I mean, they’re just coming up. I don’t think they should put any extra pressure on themselves.''
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Starts like Tong’s are bound to happen at a certain point, Peterson noted, and they do not define a pitcher.
“I don’t think that’s what we’re going to see from him regularly,” he said. “He’s very talented and he has a lot of good stuff. I just tried to tell him that last night. I was like, ‘Learn what you can from it. Flush it. Tomorrow’s a new day, and forget about it, honestly.’ It’s going to happen, and that’s the easiest way. If you dwell on it, if you try and look too much into it, you kind of get yourself in a bad spot. And so I think it’s you see what you did, what you didn’t do, and move on.’’
Notes & quotes: The Mets recalled Dom Hamel, their 2022 minor-league pitcher of the year. Huascar Brazoban, who threw 3 1⁄3 scoreless innings Friday, was optioned to Syracuse.
Ben Dickson is Newsday Sports' general assignment reporter. He joined Newsday’s high school sports staff in 2023 after graduating from Maryland, where he covered several of the Terrapins' teams.
