Mets' Jonah Tong bounces back with solid start to secure series win over Padres
The Mets' Jonah Tong pitches during the first inning against the San Diego Padres at Citi Field on Thursday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
We’re so often told that baseball is a game of failure when actually, it’s a game of how you respond to it.
And as it turns out, Jonah Tong may be pretty good at this baseball thing.
Because it would have been remarkably easy to dismiss Tong after his frightful outing against the Rangers last week — to sense his panic then and feel as if the kid was placed in an untenable situation and needed more time to develop.
But with 10 games left going into Thursday, the Mets didn’t have the benefit of time. What they did have was a boyish Canadian with a baffling fastball, a nasty curveball and a short memory.
Tong led the way to a 6-1 win over the Padres in the rubber game of the series at Citi Field. The Diamondbacks (77-76), who were idle, and the Reds (77-76), who beat the Cubs on Thursday night, are two games behind the Mets (79-74) for the third and final wild-card spot. The Giants (76-77) had an opportunity to move into a three-way tie but fell three games back.
“It just takes a day to let it flush and go right back to it,” Tong said. “Every day, I was like, all right [I want to get back out there]. But no, you treat it like a normal start. There’s always anticipation every time you go out.”
In his fourth major-league start, Tong (2-2) allowed one unearned run and four hits with no walks and eight strikeouts, becoming the first Mets pitcher 22 or younger to record at least eight strikeouts since Noah Syndergaard did it in 2015.
That came after lasting only two-thirds of an inning against the Rangers, who took 18 of the first 19 pitches they saw and tagged Tong for six earned runs.
The Mets scored four runs in the third against Padres starter Randy Vazquez and Wandy Peralta, capped by Brandon Nimmo’s three-run homer.
Tyler Rogers, Brooks Raley, Gregory Soto and Edwin Diaz supported Tong with four innings of two-hit shutout relief.
“You have to put together complete games in order to win,” Nimmo said of a game in which the offense hit, the pitching dominated, the defense made key stops and the baserunning was smart and aggressive. “It’s baseball. It cycles. Sometimes you play very well for a period of time and sometimes it’s harder for a period of time.”
Tong could have crashed out early but showcased a steeliness that belied his youth. He got Fernando Tatis Jr. to fly out to deep right to start the game and then allowed back-to-back singles by Luis Arraez and Manny Machado. But a favorable carom off the wall allowed Nimmo to hit Francisco Lindor, who executed a pinpoint relay to Jeff McNeil, who nailed Machado trying to reach second.
Tong immediately settled down after that, striking out three of the next four batters.
“That was huge,” he said. “I remember I was running and I was like, ‘Oh, no, I’ve got to cover behind the plate,’ and I got there late and I turned around and I saw the throw and I [gasped]. It definitely was huge.”
Pete Alonso got the Mets on the board in the first, destroying Vasquez’s 1-and-0 sweeper, launching it 445 feet to center for his 37th homer of the season and extending his home run streak to four games. It was his second-longest homer of the season.
“He’s locked in,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “When he’s doing things like that, he can carry a team.”
Tong got into some trouble of his own making in the third after Tatis hit a would-be home run ball that went just foul. He ended up hitting a single, moved to second when Tong’s pickoff throw went wide and reached third on a wild pitch. Arraez then drove him in with a 233-foot sacrifice fly when Nimmo’s throw skittered to the plate, tying the score at 1.
Cedric Mullins, warming up after a dismal start to his tenure as a Met, led off the third with a single. Lindor then singled to right and Tatis made the ill-advised decision to try to get the speedy Mullins going first to third. The throw was short and Lindor’s heads-up baserunning landed him on second just before the tag. That extra base avoided the double play and resulted in a run and a 2-1 lead when Juan Soto hit a grounder to second. It was his 100th RBI.
Vasquez walked Alonso and was replaced by Peralta to face Nimmo, but the plan backfired when Nimmo deposited Peralta’s changeup into the home bullpen in right to put the Mets up 5-1 and prompt an exultant scream from Lindor trotting home from third.
It was Lindor’s 1,000 career run. He added another in the seventh when he led off with a walk, went first-to-third on Soto’s single and scored on Alonso’s sacrifice fly.
“You always want to play your best baseball at the end of the year,” Alonso said. “It’s not about how you start. It’s not about how things happen in the middle. It’s about how you finish.”
It’s about how you bounce back, too. Tong did it Thursday, and after nearly quashing their own playoff hopes, the Mets have nine more games to follow suit and finish it right.
Laura Albanese is a reporter, feature writer and columnist covering local professional sports teams; she began at Newsday in 2007 as an intern.
