Brandon Sproat<\/a>-Nolan McLean medley, the youthful right-hander was not torched \u2014 the only three hits he surrendered all cleared the fence \u2014 but he allowed more earned runs (four) than he had in any of his 22 starts with Double-A Binghamton and Triple-A Syracuse this season.<\/p>\nAfter opening his major league career letting up one earned run (and three unearned) against the Marlins, Tong served up home runs to Sal Stewart (a two-run shot in the second), Matt McLain (in the third) and Austin Hays (in the fourth) \u2014 all off four-seamers \u2014 to dig a ditch that the Mets\u2019 offense never truly threatened to escape.<\/p>\n
Tong is known for his fastballs that fill the top of the zone and had proved nearly unhittable at lower levels, but Stewart and McLain were able to barrel four-seamers that did not appear misplaced.<\/p>\n
Cedric Mullins tries to rob a home run during the Mets\u2019 loss to the Reds on Sept. 6. AP<\/p>\n
\u201cNothing changes,\u201d Tong said of the difference in facing major leaguers and minor leaguers, blaming the results on himself and not the level of competition. \u201cIt\u2019s just execution on my end.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe gets away with those pitches at the minor league level,\u201d manager Carlos Mendoza said. \u201cHere, you\u2019re facing a lot better competition. But I think he made a good adjustment recognizing that.\u201d<\/p>\n
If Tong did not yet demonstrate that he can buzz through an opposing major league lineup, he did show that he can battle. <\/p>\n
The boyish rookie walked four, pitched his way out of minor trouble and struck out six with a fastball that touched 98.4 mph while inducing 13 whiffs on Reds swings.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
He surrendered the solo shot to Hays to begin the bottom of the fourth but did not let up another hit while taking down six innings, a distance Mets starters have been allergic to all season.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of positives from his outing,\u201d Mendoza said of Tong, who added he struggled with his offspeed stuff early and found it late.<\/p>\n
Of the 96 pitches he threw, 52 were fastballs.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Ryne Stanek throws a pitch during the Mets\u2019 loss to the Reds on Sept. 6. USA TODAY Network via Imagn Images<\/p>\n
\u201cJust need to do a better job mixing offspeed for strikes and being unpredictable,\u201d said Tong, who is learning on the job and was not the reason the Mets lost.<\/p>\n
The larger culprits on the evening were the inconsistent Ryne Stanek (charged with two runs in the seventh) and an offense that did not create enough opportunities and did little with those it did create.<\/p>\n
The Mets scored once in the third \u2014 when Cedric Mullins and Francisco Lindor walked, Juan Soto reached on an infield single and Brandon Nimmo lifted a sacrifice fly \u2014 again in the seventh when a pinch-hitting Jared Young homered \u2014 and tacked on a run on a wild pitch in the ninth.<\/p>\n
Francisco Lindor gets tagged out at second base during the Mets\u2019 Sept. 6 loss to the Reds. USA TODAY Network via Imagn Images<\/p>\n
Otherwise, they were quiet largely because of failures both in the clutch and on the base paths.<\/p>\n
That third inning ended with Jeff McNeil grounding out with the bases loaded. <\/p>\n
In the sixth, Pete Alonso reached third and Mark Vientos first with two outs before Brett Baty chased strike three. <\/p>\n
Vientos reached third and Baty second in the eighth before Francisco Alvarez was punched out on three pitches, stranding two of the 10 runners the Mets left on base.<\/p>\n
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\u201cCouldn\u2019t do much on him,\u201d Mendoza said of the offense against Brady Singer.<\/p>\n
Not helping matters was Lindor running his way out of a couple of chances. <\/p>\n
Hotter with his bat (reaching base 10 straight times before a ground out in the seventh) than his legs, Lindor was thrown out trying to steal second in the first inning. <\/p>\n
Sal Stewart rounds the bases after hitting a home run against the Mets on Sept. 6. AP<\/p>\n
Four innings later, Lindor hammered a double, bringing Soto to the plate with one out in a game the Mets trailed, 4-1. <\/p>\n
Lindor then tried to steal third and was thrown out on a night the Mets needed base runners.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CINCINNATI \u2014 In 113 \u00b2\/\u2083 thoroughly dominant minor league innings this season, Jonah Tong allowed a total of…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":206954,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,5048,98415,1266,405,403,1305,5226,5225,5228,5227,62,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-206953","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-cincinnati-reds","10":"tag-jonah-tong","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-city","14":"tag-new-york-mets","15":"tag-newyork","16":"tag-newyorkcity","17":"tag-ny","18":"tag-nyc","19":"tag-sports","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-united-states-of-america","22":"tag-unitedstates","23":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","24":"tag-us","25":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115161594794245765","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206953\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}