It's Jonah Tong Day for the Mets!

The Mets kicked the ball around on Thursday in an ugly loss, but tonight is must-see TV with Jonah Tong toeing the rubber

NY Post

What’s up with the Mets? ⚾️

• The Mets lost to the Marlins 7-4 on Thursday night at Citi Field (box)

• The Mets committed three errors and allowed five unearned runs on the night

• Pete Alonso and Brandon Nimmo provided the scoring - Nimmo drove in two runs with a double in the first and Alonso hit his 30th home run of the season to drive in two in the fifth

• Clay Holmes had a rough outing as he struggled with his command once again, and also committed an error on a PFP play in the third that led to two runs for Miami

• Gregory Soto also allowed three unearned runs thanks to a horribly sloppy seventh inning behind him

• Kevin Herget did provide the Mets with 2.2 scoreless innings of relief on the night

• The Mets are now 0-54 when trailing after eight innings this year, 26-18 in series openers, 14-9 in series openers at home, 10-15 in August, and 22-17 against the NL East in 2025

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Injury Updates 🏥

• C Francisco Álvarez (fractured pinky, thumb sprain) will be re-evaluated in 2-3 days but is expected to return relatively soon

• OF Jesse Winker (back discomfort) started a rehab assignment with Low-A St. Lucie on Wednesday, but is still experiencing intermittent pain

• RHP Reed Garrett (elbow strain) has no ligament damage - he could return from the IL as soon as he’s eligible

• RHP Tylor Megill (elbow sprain) allowed three runs over four innings in a rehab start with Triple-A Syracuse on Thursday

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Playoff Race 🏁

The Mets took a hit with their loss against the Marlins and the Phillies blowout win over the Braves on Thursday. They now sit five games behind Philadelphia for first place in the NL East.

The Mets have clinched the season series and the standings tiebreaker over the Phillies. As such, if they finish with identical records, the Mets would win the NL East.

Meanwhile, the Reds were idle on Thursday, so the Mets gave back 1/2 game in the race for the third wild card.

The Mets now have a 94.7% chance of making the 2025 playoffs, per FanGraphs:

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Stats of the Day 📊

• Pete Alonso’s 256 home runs are the 10th-most in Major League history through a players first 980 games trailing only Aaron Judge (308), Ryan Howard (274), Ralph Kiner (270), Harmon Killebrew (269), Giancarlo Stanton (265), Juan González (263), Shohei Ohtani (263), Albert Pujols (258) and Albert Belle (258).

• Alonso’s 256 home runs are the third-most in Major League history through a player's first seven Big League seasons behind Kiner (294) and Pujols (282).

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Who’s Hot? 🥵

• In 25 games in August, Francisco Lindor is hitting .362/.437/.571 with seven doubles, five home runs and 14 RBI with 38 hits and 23 runs scored

• Clay Holmes has allowed two earned runs or fewer in six of his last seven starts dating back to July 25, and over his last 10 starts, Holmes has allowed just one home run

• Brandon Nimmo has hit safely in 11 of his last 12 starts since August 12 and is batting .348/.385/.478 (16-for-46) with one home run, three doubles, 10 RBI and nine runs during that span

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Play of the Game 🤮

The theme of Thursday’s game for the Mets were errors and plays not made, and the play of the game was the beginning of their own undoing when Clay Holmes didn’t catch a wide throw from Pete Alonso at first base with two outs on a PFP play, leading to two unearned runs:

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Down on the Farm 🌾

• OF Jett Williams (no. 2 prospect, Triple-A): 2-for-5, 2 RBI, 2 R

• OF Jared Young (Triple-A): 3-for-5, 3B, 2 RBI, 2 R

• C Kevin Parada (Double-A): 1-for-4, 2 RBI

• INF AJ Salgado (Single-A): 1-for-2, HR, 2 RBI

BOX SCORES

Single-A STL | High-A BRK | Double-A BNG | Triple-A SYR

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Today’s Game 🗓️

Match-up: Mets (72-62) vs. Marlins (63-71)

Where: Citi Field - Flushing, NY

Starters: RHP Jonah Tong (MLB Debut) vs. RHP Eury Pérez (6-3, 3.44 ERA)

When: 7:10 PM EDT

Where to Watch: SNY

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Forget last night - its Jonah Tong Day! ✍️

AP Photo

I don’t want to spend too much time talking about that nonsense from last night, to be perfectly honest with everyone. That was a big time letdown game by the Mets after a really emotional series against the Phillies. They had a predictable baseball hangover and they just weren’t engaged from play-to-play. It’s as simple as that and no matter what they say, that’s probably the reason they were bumbling the ball around all night long. Between Clay Holmes not catching that PFP play, Pete Alonso’s all-around circus act at first including that throw, Brandon Nimmo flubbing a ball in left, and two plays not made at the plate by Jeff McNeil with the infield in, it was just an all-around mess and the Mets got what they deserved.

I will say - the Marlins unquestionably outclassed the Mets last night and they have the building blocks to start an upward trajectory in this division in the coming years. They make contact, they have speed, they’re mobile on the bases, and they have the potential to outpace teams with the brand of baseball they’re trying to play. They were simply faster and more athletic than the Mets were last night and played some good defense. So, kudos to them for the improvements they’ve made.

Anyway, it’s Jonah Tong day for the Mets today.

Kylie Richelle - Syracuse Mets

I was really excited to see Nolan McLean make his debut a couple of weeks ago, and of course I never imagined he would make the immediate impact that he has not only in the games he’s pitched, but with the energy he’s injected to this team since he arrived.

But I am even more excited to watch Tong tonight.

He isn’t exactly coming out of nowhere. He has torn up the minor leagues for the better part of two years now and has made as quick of an ascent to the major leagues as a pitcher can during that span. His 1.48 ERA in the minor leagues this season doesn’t even tell the entire story. He is swing and miss with four different pitches with a heavy north-to-south trajectory thanks to his straight over-the-top delivery, which is pretty unusual for this day and age since most pitchers use a 3/4 arm slot. So, it creates a unique deception for this era which is unlike most other pitchers in the sport.

He will remind you of Tim Lincecum if I had to wager.

Anyway, Tong will be the second prospect the Mets are injecting into their beleaguered starting rotation in less than two weeks. And it’s probably overdue considering how much the rotation as a whole has struggled not just with their performance, but in their ability to simply pitch more than half a game.

Personally, I think the Mets should’ve called up at least one of Tong, McLean, or Brandon Sproat in early August. After David Stearns couldn’t acquire a starting pitcher, there was no reason to wait as the rotation had been a mess for six weeks leading up to the trade deadline. 2-3 weeks wasn’t going to make a difference in any of their development cycles but it could have (in hindsight, of course) to the major league team.

Now sure, it’s unfair to place such heavy expectations on prospects, especially pitching prospects and especially in New York. I am the first one to caution those who are being impatient about thriving prospects in the minors on that.

But, the Mets were in a very difficult situation with their rotation considering they had taken so many injury hits, there was so much underperformance, they were going with openers and bullpen games seemingly every turn through, and it was just killing their bullpen since they were being asked for at least 15 outs a game pretty much every day David Peterson wasn’t pitching.

Perhaps giving two of these prospects 1-2 extra starts here would’ve provided more value to the team than giving them those starts down there and throwing darts at the wall while hoping to hit the target here.

NY Post

Anyway, tonight is must-see TV for us. It’s going to be a fun night as we all get to see what the Mets have had cooking with Tong. We’ve seen glimpses of him in clips, we saw him at the Futures Game last month, but now we get to see him when it matters, and boy does tonight matter as the Mets begin their home stretch in this playoff race down the stretch of the season.

It will also be interesting to see the swing-and-miss Tong go up against a team that is far from swing-and-miss. The Marlins have the seventh-best contact rate in MLB this year, and that was on full display last night against the bumbling Mets. They of course have never seen Tong before so there will be that element in play tonight, and it’s his first start and he will have butterflies for sure.

Let’s see how he does. I’ve been looking forward to this for a long time.

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Around the League 🚩

• Kyle Schwarber hit four home runs in the Phillies 19-4 drubbing of the Braves in Philadelphia

• The Yankees won their fifth straight game in a 10-4 rout of the White Sox

• Willy Adames hit two home runs and the Giants walked off the Cubs in the ninth with a 4-3 win at Oracle Park

• The Diamondbacks roughed up José Quintana for six runs in their 6-4 win over the Brewers