CINCINNATI — In 113 ⅔ thoroughly dominant minor league innings this season, Jonah Tong allowed a total of two home runs.
It took 13 plate appearances for the Reds to top that.
The promising 22-year-old’s encore was again intriguing but less effective than his victorious debut, getting touched up for three homers in a 6-3 loss at Great American Ball Park on Saturday.
The Mets (76-66) fell seven games behind the Phillies in the division on a night that began with the club four games ahead of the Giants in the chase for the final wild card.
In the first leg of a Tong-Brandon Sproat-Nolan McLean medley, the youthful right-hander was not torched — the only three hits he surrendered all cleared the fence — but he did allow more earned runs (four) than he had in any of his 22 starts with Double-A Binghamton and Triple-A Syracuse this season.
After opening his major league career letting up one earned run (and three unearned) against the Marlins, Tong served up home runs to Sal Stewart (a two-run shot in the second), Matt McClain (in the third) and Austin Hays (in the fourth), all off four-seamers, to dig a ditch that the Mets’ offense never truly threatened to escape.
If Tong did not yet demonstrate that he can buzz through an opposing lineup, he did show that he can battle.
The boyish rookie walked four, pitched his way out of minor trouble and struck out six with a fastball that touched 98.4 mph while inducing 13 whiffs on Reds swings.
He surrendered a solo shot to begin the bottom of the fourth and did not let up another hit while taking down six innings, a distance Mets starters have been allergic to all season.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
