Tong's wild ride results in his first double-digit K performance of the year
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At times, baseball can be nearly impossible to quantify. Just ask Jonah Tong.
The Mets' No. 2 prospect struck out 10 for the first time this season, but a pair of homers and another inherited run scoring resulted to a rather unusual pitching line on Tuesday.
Tong was charged with six runs -- five in the fifth inning -- across 4 2/3 frames despite generating 16 whiffs on 41 swings (39 percent) during Syracuse's eventual 8-6 win over Scranton/Wilkes-Barre at NBT Bank Stadium.
It was the the 22-year-old's 10th double-digit strikeout performance as a pro and first since last July 4 with Double-A Binghamton.
Tong served notice he had the strikeout pitch working from the get go, striking out the side on 11 pitches. MLB's No. 43 prospect fanned two more in the second, one in the third, two in the fourth and two in the fifth. He continued to incorporate his secondary offerings more, something the Mets asked him to do during Spring Training.
On that front, his outing proved fruitful. Tong rang up eight K's on his secondary pitches, including three on the cutter he emphasized during Grapefruit League action. The Toronto-born hurler threw 12 cutters to offset his 95 mph heater, generating four whiffs on the pitch in the process. All told, he surrendered five hits and three walks while tossing 86 pitches (53 for strikes).
Tong's command has been an early-season issue for him thus far. It's led to high pitch counts and kept him from pitching deeper into games. Although he has struck out 23 in 15 1/3 innings through four starts, Tong has also walked 10.
The long ball has also hurt the flamethrower in the early going. After not surrendering a homer during a strong season debut, Tong has yielded homers in his past three starts, four altogether.
The ups and downs are reflective of this year's campaign for him. Despite strong K rates and an overall meager hard-hit rate, Tong's ERA ballooned up to 7.01 after his fifth-inning struggles. The underlying numbers certainly don't merit concern on April 14, but the Mets would like to see more complete outings from their prized pitching prospect.
It also shouldn't be overlooked that Tong is a relative newcomer to the upper levels of the Minors. Tuesday's outing was just Tong's sixth Triple-A start. He was promoted to Syracuse last August and made a pair of appearances before spending the final five weeks of the season in the Majors, flashing immense promise but also mixed results.
Despite not throwing a single Minor League pitch after Aug. 23, Tong still paced all of the Minors for the season in strikeouts with 179, including five starts with 10 or more K's.
His first such outing of 2026 portends good things as the season progresses, even if his final line didn't fully reflect his dominance.