Mets Notebook: Tong vs deGrom, Streaky Offense, Playoff Hopes

QUEENS — After making his debut as a long-haired, 26-year-old in 2014, Jacob deGrom made 209 starts as a New York Met. Friday night at Citi Field, the now 37-year-old deGrom made his first-ever start against the team that drafted him back in 2010.

In those 209 starts, deGrom pitched to a 2.52 ERA, struck out 1,607 batters, and won a pair of Cy Young Awards. He was also an integral rotation piece on the Mets’ 2015 NL pennant-winning-club, making four starts in that postseason, including a seven-inning, 13-strikeout performance against the Dodgers in the NLDS.

For nine years, he was the face of the Mets. To thank him for his service, his former club displayed a tribute video to deGrom prior to the game.

“That was really cool,” deGrom said. “This is where it all started. Coming back here, I thought it was going to be a very special day. Thankful to the Mets for playing that. These fans were great to me when I was her,e and that was a really nice thing to do.”

In his first game on the Citi Field mound since Game 2 of the 2022 NL Wild Card series, deGrom pitched like vintage deGrom.

Routinely touching the upper-90s, even into the later innings, the Florida-native turned in a quality start by going seven innings, while allowing three runs on four hits.

Despite only getting five swings and misses, leading to two strikeouts, deGrom finished his night by retiring 15 consecutive Mets, as the Texas Rangers cruised to an 8-3 victory.

Obviously, the familiarity helped.

“Honestly, the mound felt exactly the same,” deGrom said.

His opposite number was a young fireballer that the Mets hope will transform into potentially their next ace: Jonah Tong.

Just a few weeks removed from pitching Double-A baseball, Tong was knocked around in his third career start as he suffered the loss for the second-straight outing.

Facing an incredibly patient Rangers lineup, which took 18 of the first 20 pitches thrown, Tong walked three batters and allowed four hits during a six-run Texas first inning. He did not survive the inning, as it marked the shortest outing for a Mets starter this year.

“[Tong] had a hard time feeling the strike zone with pretty much all of his pitches,” manager Carlos Mendoza said postgame. “Whether it was the fastball, he threw some good changeups, but that kind of got away from him, too.”

After two walks, a strikeout, and a flyout, Tong had Rangers’ third baseman Josh Jung in an 0-2 hole, with an escape hatch to the inning in front of him. However, Tong was unable to put him away, as a 96-mph fastball leaked over the plate that Jung dumped into right field for a go-ahead single. Texas never looked back.

Alejandro Osuna followed with a run-scoring knock before a walk, RBI-single and two-run double made it a half-dozen runs for the Rangers before the Mets even came to bat.

“Even when he was battling through that first inning, he had a chance there with first and third and two outs,” Mendoza said.

“Gets an 0-2 count and leaves the fastball there that [the Rangers] got him. A couple of them. Probably pitch selection in those situations, not using the changeup or curveball to finish that at-bat. Could have been a different story there.”

It was the type of inning that happens to young pitchers, and it proved to the Mets that potentially Tong, 22, is not quite big-league ready. After all, he made just two starts at Triple-A before his promotion on August 29.

After his early exit, Tong received words of advice from veteran Met teammates.

“[They told me to] Keep your head up,” an emotional Tong said. “The sun’s going to rise tomorrow. Going to have some time to reflect on this and get ready for the next one, and just go from there.”

Nonetheless, with Tong’s struggles, the Mets’ rotation continues to hold serious question marks. Sean Manaea, Clay Holmes and David Peterson all struggled in their most recent starts, leaving Mendoza relying on youngsters, such as Tong, Nolan McLean and Brandon Sproat.

Mendoza was noncommittal to Tong, making his next start with the big-league club. Kodai Senga, who was optioned to Triple-A earlier this month, threw six innings of one-run ball with Syracuse on Friday night, striking out eight.

Boom or Bust with the Bats

On Thursday, the Mets saw five of their first six batters reach base against Phillies starter Jesús Luzardo. After surrendering four runs in the process, Luzardo proceeded to retire the next 22 batters before Jhoan Duran notched a save with a 1-2-3 ninth inning.

Then, to start Friday’s game, deGrom retired the first four Mets, making it 29-straight at-bats without a baserunner for New York.

To lead off the third inning, Francisco Alvarez took deGrom deep the other way before Cedric Mullins singled and Francisco Lindor doubled. Juan Soto came close to his 40th home run of the season, but had to settle for a sacrifice fly, before Pete Alonso swatted a run-scoring fly ball of his own to cut the deficit to 6-3.

In the past two nights, the Mets have had stretches of four runs in six batters, no baserunners in nearly 10 innings, three runs in five batters and once again, no baserunners for five innings.

“I thought in that third inning, we put together some really good at-bats,” Mendoza said. “But, you’re not going to be able to do that when you’re facing a guy like deGrom. It’s going to be hard, even good, though we have some really good hitters.”

Despite three swings that produced exit velocities upwards of 100 mph, Soto saw his 20-game on-base streak come to an end, as he finished 0-for-3 with the sac fly. Alvarez was the only Met to record multiple hits, going 2-for-3 with a home run.

A Suddenly Tight Race for October

Entering play on June 13, the Mets held the best record in baseball at 45-24. With 14 games left to play, they are fighting to even crack the six-team National League field in the postseason.

The loss on Friday marked the seventh-straight for New York, also marking its third seperate seven-game losing streak this year, somrthing that has not happened to the team since 1980. After the Giants’ 1-0 win over the Dodgers and the Reds’ 3-0 loss to the Athletics, the Mets’ lead over San Francisco is down to a skinny half game for the final wild card spot.

“Obviously, very concerned,” outfielder Brandon Nimmo said. “We want to be in the playoffs, and we’re not playing playoff baseball right now. But, we gotta come into tomorrow expecting things to change and keep giving it your best effort. No one’s gonna feel sorry for you, no one’s gonna back down, and you’ve got people chasing you.”

The Mets’ falloff is not a recent development. In the second half, New York is 21-29, and if not for a miraculous Houdini act by Edwin Diaz last Friday, would be looking at nine-straight losses.

There is no doubt that the Mets have the personnel — and the payroll — to play October baseball. But they will need to turn things around quickly.

“They’re frustrated, obviously,” Mendoza said. “I’m not going to lie. But we’ve got to get out of it. We’ve got to come back tomorrow and find a way to get a job done and win one game.”