MIAMI -- Jonah Tong sparkled in his season debut and Juan Soto continued to be red-hot at the plate with a long home run, but it was not enough in the Mets’ 2-1 loss to the Marlins at loanDepot park on Friday night.
Tong, the Mets' No. 2 prospect who was recalled from Triple-A Syracuse earlier in the day, tossed three hitless innings of relief with two strikeouts and one walk while facing the minimum.
The 22-year-old came on in the sixth inning with the Mets trailing by a run and put the first three Marlins he faced down in order.
After Owen Caissie walked to lead off the seventh, Joe Mack grounded into a double play. Tong sat down the final four Miami batters he faced.
The Mets, however, were held to a total of three hits in the game by four Miami pitchers.
“Very encouraging,’’ manager Carlos Mendoza said of Tong. “The velo, the fastball, the way he was playing -- his changeup was good. He attacked with the curve, gave us a chance. But, offensively, we just didn’t get anything other than a couple of at-bats from Soto.”
Tong made five starts for the Mets at the end of last season -- coincidentally getting his first win in his Major League debut against the Marlins on Aug. 29 -- but Mendoza said Friday afternoon the plan is for Tong to work out of the bullpen for now.
After leading the Minor Leagues with 179 strikeouts last season and being tied for sixth this year entering Friday with 55, Tong said coming on in relief is something he has done before and can do again.
Tong said he was not only excited to be back with the Mets, but also to be on the mound with three fellow rookies backing him up in the outfield. The Mets started Carson Benge in right, A.J. Ewing in center and Nick Morabito in left.
“It was awesome to be out there with the boys again,” Tong said. “All the outfielders? That was pretty special. I was talking to [Morabito] on the bus today, and I said, ‘This happens very rarely,’ especially with all these guys coming up around the same time. It’s awesome.”
The Mets, who have lost three of their past four, got a win Thursday in Washington against the Nationals with two runs.
Friday, it looked like they would do more than that after Soto gave the Mets a 1-0 lead with a towering home run in the first inning.
That turned out to be all New York got off a Miami pitching staff that was led by starter Eury Pérez.
Pérez (3-6) went 6 1/3 innings, allowing just two hits. Both of those were to Soto.
Soto’s blast, which landed in the upper deck in right-center field, went a Statcast-projected 449 feet and came on a 99.8 mph pitch from Pérez -- the fastest pitch hit for a homer in the Majors this season.
“It feels good to give the team the lead, but we fell short,” Soto said. “I would have loved to keep crushing it like that. It feels good, but it wasn’t enough to win the game.”
Miami’s pitching was certainly helped by some fantastic defensive plays, with three potential extra-base hits taken away on two grabs by Jakob Marsee in center and one by Esteury Ruiz in left.
Marsee opened the game with a gem, covering a ton of ground and making a leaping backhanded grab of a Benge drive up against the wall in right-center field.
He later took another extra-base hit away from Benge with a great play to end the sixth. Luis Torrens saw a long drive to the left-field wall snagged by Ruiz for the second out in that sixth inning.
“They play good defense, and that’s probably a different game there with those two balls to center,” Mendoza said.
Tobias Myers got the start for the Mets, but he was not expected to last long as the opener. Mendoza replaced Myers with Sean Manaea with one out in the second after Ruiz doubled.
Ruiz scored the game-tying run after stealing third -- then scored what turned out to be the game-winning run in the fourth after he tripled to right and came home on a single from Caissie.
Manaea went 3 2/3 innings, giving up a run and striking out three.
“It’s not what you want as far as the results, not getting the job done,” Mendoza said. “But we went in trying to piece it together, and there were a lot of good things from the pitching staff. [Manaea] was coming off a better outing against the Yankees and, today, was probably the best we’ve seen out of him. He kept us there, did his job.”