22-year-old Jonah Tong earned the victory in his major league debut, as the Mets trounced the Marlins 19-9. It was a historic win for the Mets in more ways than one. In addition to Tong and Nolan McLean becoming the first pair of Mets starting pitchers to earn a win in their major league debuts in the same season, the Mets scored the most runs in the first two innings of the game in franchise history and the most total runs in a home game in team history.
After Tong delivered a six-pitch scoreless
top of the first inning, the Mets ambushed Eury Pérez right away in the bottom of the first. Francisco Lindor walked to lead off the inning and stole second base. Juan Soto then hit a towering two-run homer to give the Mets an almost immediate 2-0 lead. Pete Alonso followed by lacing a single and Mark Vientos walked. Brandon Nimmo then launched a three-run homer and just like that the Mets were up 5-0. It took Pérez 34 pitches to record his first out and he didn’t make it out of the inning. With two outs, former Met Tyler Zuber came in the game in relief.
Zuber struck out Tyrone Taylor to end the inning, but the Mets piled on against him in the second. Much like Pérez in the first, Zuber was unable to complete the inning and the Mets doubled their lead before his exit. This time all the damage came with two outs. Juan Soto got things started with a single and Pete Alonso hit a two-run homer to extend the Mets’ lead to 7-0. Mark Vientos singled, Nimmo walked, and then Starling Marte contributed an RBI single to plate yet another run. Brett Baty walked to load the bases and Tyrone Taylor doubled to give the Mets their highest run total before the end of the second inning since April 12, 2013. Valente Bellozo then came in the game in long relief and was forced to soak up 4 1/3 innings in mop-up duty for Miami. Francisco Lindor greeted him rudely with a double to give the Mets a 12-0 lead and set the record for the most runs scored in the first two innings in franchise history.
Jonah Tong gladly exchanged the long layovers two innings in a row for the pile of run support he received, which likely helped calm his nerves somewhat. Being able to breathe a little easier, Tong recorded his first major league strikeout to lead off the third, in which he navigated his way through a jam thanks in part to a second strikeout in the inning. He also logged a pair of strikeouts in a 1-2-3 fourth inning. He just needed to get through one more inning to be eligible for the win, but the fifth inning was not exactly smooth sailing for Tong and his defense didn’t help him out either. Troy Johnston singled to lead off the inning, advanced to second on Tong’s second wild pitch of the game, and scored the Marlins’ first run on an Eric Wagaman single.
Tong bounced back to strike out Joey Wiemer for the first out, but then the Mets continued their trend of playing poor defense and committed back-to-back miscues in the field. Xavier Edwards hit a grounder to second base and Baty flipped the ball to Lindor covering second, but Lindor dropped the ball, allowing everyone to reach safely. Jakob Marsee then hit a sharp grounder to first that Pete Alonso muffed completely, allowing a run to score. Tong retired Agustín Ramírez on a pop out in foul territory, but Otto López hit a single that scored two runs to make the score 12-4. With Tong’s pitch count climbing, Liam Hicks was likely going to be his final batter regardless of result. Thanks in part to a kind strike three call by home plate umpire Andy Fletcher, Tong put himself in line for the win with his sixth strikeout of the night. Because of the poor defense in the fifth, only one of the four runs the Marlins scored against Tong was earned. Though Tong did not induce as many whiffs as he has in the minor leagues, he still didn’t walk any batters in a rousing success of a big league debut.
The lopsided score presented the perfect opportunity for Ryan Helsley to try to right the ship and he worked around a leadoff double to pitch a scoreless sixth inning, assisted by a sparkling defensive play by Francisco Lindor for a nice change of pace. Meanwhile, the Mets didn’t score again until the bottom of the sixth when Brandon Nimmo hit a solo homer off the right field foul pole to add another run to the Mets’ double-digit total. The Marlins scored a run in the eighth off Luis Castillo, who contributed two innings of work. Utility man Javier Sanoja took the mound in the bottom of the eighth for the third time in four days for the Marlins and the Mets feasted on him, adding six more runs to their already robust total to set a franchise record for most runs in a home game. Mark Vientos and Luis Torrens both went deep in the Mets’ third big inning of the night.
The Mets countered the Marlins’ position player pitching with one of their own, but Luis Torrens couldn’t get out of the inning. The Marlins scored four runs off Torrens, who was only able to record one out. Carlos Mendoza then did a walk of shame of sorts to the mound and pulled Torrens in favor of Ryne Stanek, lest the Mets make an unprecedented blunder by letting the game get away. Stanek mercifully made quick work of the final two outs and put an end to a game that saw 33 combined hits, including eight home runs—six of them by the Mets. With this victory, the Mets remain five games behind the Phillies in the NL East, but extend their lead to five games over the Reds, who lost to the Cardinals tonight in extra innings.
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Big Mets winner: Juan Soto, +13.7% WPA
Big Mets loser: None
Mets pitchers: +7.8% WPA
Mets hitters: +42.2% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Juan Soto’s two-run homer in the first inning, +13.5% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Otto López’s leadoff double off Jonah Tong in the second, -3.3% WPA
