Tong’s Peculiar Second Outing Marred By Home-Run Ball

Jonah Tong threw six innings of three-hit ball Saturday in the first road start of his career, which would typically result in a good day’s work. The problem was all three hits sailed over the fence of the Great American Ball Park.

Tong retired the first five Cincinnati Reds he faced before walking Spencer Steer with two outs in the second inning. Sal Stewart, a 21-year-old rookie playing in his fourth MLB game, followed with a two-run homer, the first of his career (Stewart hit 20 homers in the minors this year).

Matt McLain hit a solo shot in the third and Austin Hays did the same in the fourth. All three homers were hit on fastballs up in the strike zone.

“They got him there for the three homers on fastballs up,” manager Carlos Mendoza said after the 6-3 loss. “But I think there’s a lot of positives from this outing. On a day where there was few walks and he had a hard time landing the fastball and the change-up early on, but he settled in nicely.”

Tong struck out six, walked four and threw 57 of 96 pitches for strikes. He retired the last five batters he faced.

“I thought the curveball was better as the game went on,” Mendoza said. “And for him to give us six innings there, like I said, there’s a lot of positives. He made some adjustments there with the pitch usage and pitch mix. But they did a good job and got him on the fastball at the top of the zone, which is something that makes him who he is. But yeah, found a way to give us six and we learn from it.”

“Some situations where I didn’t execute,” Tong said. “Didn’t really have my off-speed in the beginning half of the game and sort of found it late, but tried to compete the best I could.”

Tong gave up two home runs in 113 2/3 innings pitched in the minor leagues this year and never gave up more than three earned runs in a game. Of course, the major leagues are a big step up.

“I mean definitely he gets away with those pitches at the minor-league level, where they either they foul it off, there’s some pop-ups,” Mendoza said. “Here you are facing a lot better competition. But I think he made a good adjustment recognizing that. Now the curveball like I said is a pitch that he can start using a lot more. But yeah there’s a difference between here and the minor leagues.”

Tong was asked about the difference between facing minor and major league hitters.

“Nothing changes, it’s just execution on my end,” he said.

The post Tong’s Peculiar Second Outing Marred By Home-Run Ball appeared first on Metsmerized Online.