Jonah Tong Earns First Major League Win
Six pitches were all it took for Jonah Tong to finish his first inning as a major leaguer. A soft lineout, then a pair of first-pitch fly-ball outs, and just like that, the 22-year-old had recorded three outs before the blink of an eye. There had to have been some first-inning jitters — of course there were — but they didn’t get the better of him. He was in a big-league game, wearing a Mets uniform and doing the thing he had dreamed about since he first picked up a baseball.
“This was…everything that I could have asked for, and more,” Tong said postgame. “We won, that’s the main thing…[The feeling], it’s hard to put into words…I’m just going to embrace the journey and have fun with it.”
Jonah Tong by Roberto Carlo
From there, the outing became more complicated, and in some ways more revealing. He wasn’t asked to be a hero, but he did need to show he could handle big-league competition. His line of five innings, six hits, four runs (only one earned), no walks, six strikeouts, and two wild pitches on 97 pitches wasn’t especially dominant. Still, it illustrated the kind of pitcher he is. He stayed composed under pressure and battled his way out of difficult situations.
It was the kind of performance that gave fans a glimpse of what might be coming in the future.
The first glimpse from Tong came in the second inning, his first real test. A leadoff double from Miami shortstop Otto Lopez had him pitching from the stretch for the first time. Instead of unraveling, Tong stayed calm. He induced three balls in play, and each was converted into an easy out.
The third inning brought even more traffic on the basepaths. After a leadoff single, Tong got Joey Wiemer to swing over a 77-mph curveball low and away for his first career strikeout. A wild pitch after an infield single put runners on second and third. Facing Jakob Marsee, he fell behind 3-0. But he clawed back with a called strike, a foul ball, and finally a called strike three to escape trouble.
By continuing to attack even when struggling, he showed a key quality: the ability to finish hitters under pressure.
By the fourth, Tong looked like he had settled in. He fanned Lopez on a low changeup, got Liam Hicks to line out, then surprised Connor Norby with a fastball down the middle after setting him up with changeups. It was another well-managed sequence from the rookie right-hander.
MiLB’s strikeout leader has his first MLB strikeout!
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That confidence carried into the fifth, even as things unraveled around him.
A leadoff single and a wild pitch got him in trouble, and then another single made things even worse. Tong responded by throwing two perfect fastballs at the knees to Wiemer and striking him out on three pitches. What should have been the start of a clean inning turned messy when Francisco Lindor misplayed a flip from Brett Baty, and Pete Alonso booted a grounder right to him. These two errors stretched the inning far longer than it should have gone.
Tong kept on chugging along. He forced a pop out, then got a called third strike on Hicks to end the inning. It was a borderline call that went his way, but by then the damage was done. Four runs (one earned) crossed the plate in the fifth. Anyone watching could see it wasn’t Tong who had wavered, but rather the shaky defense behind him.
As he walked off the mound, Citi Field rose to its feet to cheer the 22-year-old who had weathered jams and errors without once looking overwhelmed.
“I really couldn’t hear myself talk, which is a new one. The fans were amazing,” Tong said afterward.
“When you see them react to [the atmosphere], you just kind of getting that feeling of like, ‘man, this is really cool,” Brandon Nimmo added. “It was a blast to watch him pitch.”
Tong’s four-seamer sat at 95.4 mph, touching 97.7, and he leaned on it heavily, throwing it nearly 60 times. Additionally, both the changeup and curveball produced multiple big outs. His whiff total sat at seven, and the way he mixed pitches kept hitters guessing all night.
“He was excellent. I’m glad he’s here with us,” said his battery mate, Luis Torrens.
The unorthodox delivery added another layer of difficulty for the Miami offense. Tong repeatedly forced hitters into awkward swings and weak contact. Pop-ups, weak hits, regardless of whether they landed as a hit, the uncomfortable swings told the real story. Most importantly, he never lost his composure. He didn’t issue a single walk. He stayed in the zone nearly half the time (49.5% pitches in the zone) and trusted his stuff.
The call-up itself came quicker than most imagined. While the Mets turned to Nolan McLean earlier this month in a more expected promotion, Tong’s arrival carried some surprise. It was just a few weeks ago he was pitching his final game for Double-A Binghamton, and now he’s in the big leagues.
Tong has been an extremely high-profile arm in the system, flashing strikeout stuff at every stop and forcing his way into conversations with each level he climbed. By mid-summer, his name must have kept coming up when the Mets discussed who might be ready next. Recently, when the rotation needed another arm, he had proven he deserved a chance.
“He’s getting another [start],” manager Carlos Mendoza confirmed. The plan now is to roll with a six-man rotation.
For a team that has cycled through arms all season, Tong offers a glimpse of something more stable. The Mets have used a record number of pitchers this season and are in need of dependable arms this postseason. While Tong’s debut wasn’t perfect, it proved he’s more than a temporary fix.
The Mets may have to monitor his innings, but he did more than enough to earn just one more spot start. In a year when good vibes have been scarce, Tong’s debut has given fans and the clubhouse alike a reason to smile.
Jonah Tong has arrived, and with him comes a sense of optimism for what’s ahead.
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