Mar 17, 2025; Jupiter, Florida, USA; A general view of the New York Mets hats for St' Patrick's Day against the Miami Marlins during the second inning at Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Rhona Wise-Imagn Images Rhona Wise-Imagn Images

Mets’ top pitching prospect dominates in Double-A perfect game

Originally posted on New York Mets on SI
By Michael Sakuraba | Last updated May 10, 2025 7:00 PM ET

The No. 6 prospect in the New York Mets' farm system dazzled on Saturday, in a historic start for the Double-A Binghamton Rumble Ponies.

Jonah Tong was dominant in his start, pitching 6.2 perfect innings before being pulled with one out left in the game; Tong’s start on Saturday was a makeup game for Friday’s cancellation and Double-A doubleheaders are limited to seven innings for each game. Reliever TJ Shook entered the game with one out remaining in the seventh inning to preserve the first perfect game in Binghamton’s franchise history.

To say that Tong was unhittable is an understatement. The 21-year-old from Markham, Ontario struck out a career-high 13 batters on just 99 pitches. Overall, 61 of those 99 pitches were thrown for strikes with an impressive 18 swing-and-misses. Over Tong’s last nineteen innings, the hard-throwing righty has racked up 40 strikeouts and lowered his season ERA to 2.57.

Jonah Tong is removed at 99 pitches and one out away from a 7-inning perfect game for Double-A Binghamton pic.twitter.com/8PazWemXVf
— SNY Mets (@SNY_Mets) May 10, 2025

Through six starts at Double-A, Tong has a 1-2 record with 51 strikeouts and a 1.07 WHIP. Tong’s start comes just one day after an impressive debut by another Mets top pitching prospect Nolan McLean. McLean’s start on Friday saw the 23-year-old pitch seven scoreless innings with seven strikeouts on just 78 pitches. Of those, 57 were strikes with 10 swing-and-misses. McLean is the No. 5 prospect in the Mets’ organization according to MLB.com’s prospect rankings.

The emergence of Tong and McLean has overshadowed what has been a slow start to the year for the Mets’ top-ranked prospect, Brandon Sproat. Still, it is a testament to the Mets’ development system and the now-infamous pitching lab that was built at the team’s spring training facility in Port St. Lucie, Florida. Both Tong and McLean have spent time in the lab over the past couple of spring training sessions.

All 13 of Jonah Tong's strikeouts from his brilliant performance today pic.twitter.com/bqJjrgBxRk
— SNY Mets (@SNY_Mets) May 10, 2025

So far this season, New York's pitching staff has been dominant; the Mets rank second in MLB with a team ERA of 2.82 heading into Saturday’s action and are fourth in total strikeouts with 355. Tong’s perfect start on Saturday should make him a candidate to potentially be promoted to Triple-A at some point this season, and a September call-up isn’t out of the question if he can continue his strong play.

This article first appeared on New York Mets on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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