Friday, August 29, 2025 • 7:10 PM
Citi Field • Flushing, NY
RHP Eury Pérez (6-3, 3.44) vs. RHP Jonah Tong (0-0, -.–)
SNY

The Mets look to bounce back after a disappointing loss against the Miami Marlins on Thursday night. Coming off the high of sweeping the Philadelphia Phillies, the Mets played a sloppy night of baseball and allowed the Marlins to score five unearned runs. New York made multiple comebacks throughout the night, but ultimately fell short in the end.

But that’s not the story tonight. The Mets are calling up top pitching prospect Jonah Tong to make his major league debut. The electric right-hander will go head-to-head with Eury Pérez, a young phenom pitcher on the Marlins. Should be an exciting night!

Jonah Tong. Photo by Steven Wojtowicz of Metsmerized

Mets Lineup

  1. Francisco Lindor – SS
  2. Juan Soto – RF
  3. Pete Alonso – 1B
  4. Mark Vientos – 3B
  5. Brandon Nimmo – LF
  6. Starling Marte – DH
  7. Brett Baty – 2B
  8. Tyrone Taylor – CF
  9. Luis Torrens – C

Jonah Tong has excelled this season in the minors. Across 102 innings in Binghamton, he had a 1.59 ERA and 0.922 WHIP with an insane 14.3 K/9. He allowed eight hits and no runs over his first 11 2/3 innings with Triple-A Syracuse while striking out 17 batters. He has a minor league career K/9 of 13.7. Tong has a deceptive delivery with a low-to-mid 90’s mph fastball with great break. He also mixes in a mid-70’s curve, low-to-mid 80’s slider and a mid-80’s changeup. He’s getting an absurd amount of swings and misses in the minors this season. Now, the Mets need him to carve up major league lineups.

Opposing Lineup

  1. Xavier Edwards – 2B
  2. Jakob Marsee – CF
  3. Agustín Ramírez – DH
  4. Otto Lopez – SS
  5. Liam Hicks – C
  6. Connor Norby – 3B
  7. Troy Johnston – LF
  8. Eric Wagaman – 1B
  9. Joey Wiemer – RF

Eury Pérez is finally healthy and is doing Eury Pérez things. He’s made 14 starts totaling 70 2/3 innings this season with a 3.44 ERA, 3.62 FIP, 0.976 WHIP and a 129 ERA+. Pérez had a great stretch from July 3 to August 2 allowing only four runs over 34 innings (1.06 ERA). Since then, he has a 5.23 ERA while allowing 14 runs over 20 2/3 innings with nine of those runs coming in back-to-back starts.

The Mets have the following career stats against Pérez:

  • Pete Alonso 0-1, K
  • Brett Baty 0-1, K
  • Francisco Lindor 0-2
  • Ronny Mauricio 1-1, BB
  • Jeff McNeil 0-1, BB
  • Cedric Mullins 1-2, K
  • Brandon Nimmo 1-1, BB
  • Tyrone Taylor 1-2, 2B, K
  • Mark Vientos 1-1, HR

Game Notes

  • Jett Williams hit his second home run for Syracuse on Thursday night. For more, check out our minor league recap!
  • The Mets optioned right-handed reliever Kevin Herget to Syracuse in order to make room for Tong on the 26-man roster.
  • Manager Carlos Mendoza told reporters that right-hander Tylor Megill (elbow) will complete another outing during his rehab assignment before the Mets consider activating him from the injured list. He allowed three runs over four innings against Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on Thursday.

Three Things To Watch For

  1. Francisco Lindor. Lindor now has a three-game streak with multiple hits. Over that stretch, he has gone 7-for-13 with all of those hits being singles. In his last 15 games, Lindor is hitting .455/.507/.712 with a total of 30 hits and nine extra-base knocks. The difference between Thursday night and a month ago is now when Lindor is on base, it feels like there is a chance the Mets are going to drive him in. Let’s keep this going tonight!
  2. Fielding. The fielding was just off last night. It wasn’t just a single player making a mistake, there were multiple plays around the field where the Mets just looked discombobulated. The Marlins took advantage of the Mets’ mistakes and forced them to make plays at the plate (which the Marlins beat out by a half step/slide each time). Really frustrating stuff, but also stuff a good team will let wash off of them before tonight’s game. We’ll be watching to see how loose the Mets seem early.
  3. Pete Alonso. Alonso is looking to end the season strong. He hit his 30th home run of the season last night and now is looking to surpass his home run total from 2024 (34). He has a 3.1 bWAR, which is already ahead of his 2024 amount (2.6) and nearing his 2023 total (3.3). He now has a 144 OPS+, which would be his third best in a season (2019 – 147, 2022 – 146) and much better than his 2023 and 2024 marks of 123. In his last three games, he has gone 7-for-12 with two doubles and a home run (.583/.615/1.000).

Let’s go Mets!