Jonah Tong impressed in his MLB season debut Friday.
Sean Manaea also turned in a strong outing. The two pitchers — the youngster and the vet, who throw from opposite sides of the plate — both had encouraging performances out of the bullpen in the Mets’ 2-1 loss to the Marlins on Friday at loanDepot Field.
It was a peculiar pitching construction for the Mets. They went with Tobias Myers as an opener, and then essentially went with Manaea and Tong as a pair of bulk guys. Putting the southpaw in between the two righties helped vary the arm angles thrown at the Marlins.
The solid showings were important for Manaea and Tong personally, as well as for the team.
Not much has gone right for Manaea this year. He entered Friday with a 6.26 ERA. For the first time in what seems like quite a while, he looked sharp on Friday. He struck out three batters and didn’t issue a walk. He cracked in the fifth inning, allowing a two-run single, but made it through 3 2/3 valuable frames.
Manaea’s sinker velocity averaged 90.9 mph, up from his season mark of 89.1. His four-seam was up to 91.7 from 90.1. Even his sweeper and changeup velocities were up a tad.
Obviously, Manaea’s season has not panned out the way the Mets had envisioned. He was signed to be a starter, and not only is he not that, but he hasn’t even been effective out of the bullpen. This type of outing, though, is one that could actually benefit the Mets if Manaea figures out a way to perform to that standard more consistently.
And then Tong took over. It’s already been a bit of a winding road for the young Tong: His first taste of MLB action last year was shaky, but he’s still young and inexperienced enough to concede that there’s a lot of potential in the tank. With his numbers in Triple-A not great this year, there was reason to be a little skeptical of what Tong would bring.
But so far, so good. Tong pitched three hitless innings. He struck out two, walked one and threw 28 pitches — 17 for strikes. He didn’t look like the young, overwhelmed rookie who debuted last season.
Worth noting, though, is that Tong was still very fastball-changeup heavy. The two-pitch mix accounted for 24 of his 28 pitches. He threw his fastball 61% of the time. That was a knock on Tong last year, that he didn’t have a reliable enough breaking offering.
Tong threw just one curveball on Friday. It landed for a called strike, for what it’s worth.
His fastball had solid life, averaging 95.9 mph. Of the seven changeups he threw, all seven were thrown to lefties. Batters swung at it three times, and they whiffed at all three. So he was effective, in this small sample. And it’s true that when a pitcher is throwing out of the bullpen, they don’t need to have as deep of an arsenal.
But it is, of course, way too early to shrug off Tong as a bullpen demotee. That certainly isn’t the hope he has for himself or the Mets have for him. It remains to be seen whether he can be a trustworthy MLB starter in the future. But it was good, at least, to see him return to the majors in basically his second go-round and have some success on Friday.
