Jonah Tong took the mound after the opening pitcher and effectively silenced a few potential comebacks that he himself had allowed to arise.
In his performance, Tong induced three swings and misses out of 11 attempts on his 17 cutters. His efforts set the stage for a pitching staff that ultimately left 17 opposition runners stranded on base.
The Mets’ most promising pitching prospect secured his first win of the season on Wednesday, delivering 3 ²/₃ innings of relief to help secure a 4-2 triumph over the Reds.
Prior to his season debut in the major leagues last week, Tong hadn’t appeared from the bullpen since his days in Single-A back in 2024, according to Baseball Reference.
“Throughout my career, I’ve prepared in various ways,” Tong remarked. “I’m here to pitch, regardless of the timing, location, or number of innings. My role is to put the team in the best position to succeed and to compete.”
Entering with a 1-0 lead in the top of the second inning, Tong’s command was spotty as he walked four and threw only 44 of 76 pitches for strikes. He scattered three hits.
“Some longer counts toward the end than I’d like,” Tong said. “Just a lot of things I think I can work on moving forward, but overall happy I was able to clean some innings for the guys.”
But Tong gut-checked to strand two runners on base in the second inning, two more in the third after his throwing error opened the door for an unearned run to score, and one in the fourth.
He turned over a two-on, two-out jam to Tobias Myers, who needed one pitch to escape trouble.
“I thought he was good the first couple innings attacking the strike zone,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “He doesn’t make that play and it completely changes the outing — cost him an extra 20 pitches. I felt like he was getting tired toward the end, but he competed and found a way.”
Tong was electric in 22 starts in the minors last year before posting a 7.74 ERA across his first five MLB starts.
He was off to a miserable start this season at Triple-A (5.68 ERA) but received a desperation promotion anyway and came out of the bullpen to throw a scoreless, game-ending three innings against the Marlins.
Wednesday was more of a traditional “opener” strategy, with Tong scheduled to replace Huascar Brazobán after one inning to create matchup advantages, according to Mendoza.
“We’re going to need him,” Mendoza said. “We’re going to continue to get creative here, whether it’s opener, using him as a bulk [reliever]. We’re going to have some off days coming up, so there’s a lot of different ways we could go.”
Said Tong: “The cutter was cool to see today, see how that plays. As we go forward, it’s just being on the attack for the entire game. I felt like I let up a little bit toward the end.”