Jonah Tong saved his best performance in the major leagues this season for his final start of 2026. The New York Mets’ young pitcher tossed five superb innings of one-run baseball in a game the Mets ended up winning 7-1.
Tong’s final line read five innings, three hits, a lone run, only one walk, and nine strikeouts. The nine strikeouts is a career-high for the 23-year-old. Tong generated a massive 19 swing-and-misses against a Nationals’ lineup that ranks in the top-half of the league in whiff rate. The Nationals’ team whiff rate was a staggering 50% on Saturday.
Tong’s four-seam fastball, which is typically his best pitch, generated five of his nine strikeouts via a 55% whiff rate. Notably, despite his velocity being slightly down on his fastball, his curveball was almost a full mile-per-hour faster than usually. As a result, he generated two more inches of included vertical break across the nine he threw.
Tong will end his major-league season with decent traditional numbers. He posted a 3.82 ERA and 34 strikeouts across 30 2/3 innings.
In the pregame media availability, manager Andy Green said in regards to Tong, “His job is to make it so freaking obvious to us that he deserves to be here that we can’t make those type of decisions when he competes in spring training.”
Spring training is around 150 days away, and with the plethora of young talent the Mets have in terms of starting pitching, it will be very interesting to see who breaks camp with the team in 2027. One thing for sure is Tong saved his best performance for last. It is a strong building block for a young pitcher who did not have a 2026 he would have hoped after posting a historic 2025 season in the minor leagues.
