The Mets wouldn't have called up rookie Jonah Tong if they didn't think he could help them win games down the stretch and secure a wild card berth — if not the division.
But it's one thing to hope for an outcome, and seeing the results first-hand and that's what Tong gave the Mets on Friday night against the Marlins. While he wasn't as great as Nolan McLean was in his MLB debut, Tong showed the team enough when he picked up the win after his five strong innings to warrant another start at the big league level.
In Tong's five innings, he allowed just one earned run without allowing a walk and struck out six batters. He worked in and out of trouble and the atmosphere or moment never seemed to big for the right-hander. And if you ask his new teammates, Tong has already made an impression.
"He was excellent. Glad that he’s here on this team with us," Luis Torrens said through an interpreter. "He’s a tremendous personality, tremendous person. Glad he’s able to share these moments with us moving forward.
"He’s the type of personality that’s easy to manage. He’s one of those guy that’s excited and happy to be here. It was really easy to work with him. His presence, it feels like he’s immediately been integrated with the guys. It’s been a smooth transition."
"Putting out some 23-inch, 97 mph fastballs. That’s impressive," Brandon Nimmo said of Tong's night. "Really happy for him. Got a great, long career ahead of him. Extremely nice kid and happy for him that he got to enjoy that moment. I hope he soaks it in and I know it can go by pretty quickly…It was a blast to watch him pitch."
The Mets will insert Tong into a newly formed six-man rotation for the time being. And while they hope he can build on his debut, if he delivers what he gave them on Friday, the team knows Tong can be a contributor down the stretch and even in the postseason.
"He can help us a ton," Torrens said. "The type of arm that he has, he’s the type of pitcher for the next month of the season and, God willing, beyond in the playoffs, he’s one of those impact arms that can help us a lot."
Starting pitching has been the Mets' weakness for most of the season, but with the call-ups of McLean and Tong, there's an energy surrounding the team that continues to shine through in every game they pitch.
After Friday's win, the Mets are now firmly in a playoff spot — 5.0 games ahead of the Reds — and still within striking distance of the Phillies for the NL East title (5.0 games). And both young pitchers are expected to play big roles in whatever happens with the 2025 Mets in the final month and beyond.
"You feel [the energy]. I think the whole team was in the dugout for the first pitch. Everybody wanted to see that, wanted to watch that," Carlos Mendoza said. "They are going to feed off each other and when you see what the potential that could be, and they are contributing right away. Yea, obviously exciting. I don't want to put too much pressure on them, but definitely something, especially where we're at in the schedule and the meaning of every game moving forward, to get performance like that, it's pretty impressive and we're going to need them."