New York Mets Minor League Report: Jonah Tong's Latest Outing Nothing To Get Excited About

Jonah Tong is not making much of a case to rejoin the New York Mets. The right-hander -- No. 1 in Grand Central Mets’ July ranking of the organization’s top 20 minor-league prospects -- has been mediocre to bad since being optioned back to Triple-A Syracuse on June 3.

His start Saturday night against Buffalo was typical: five innings, five hits, two runs (both earned), three walks, two strikeouts. He threw 53 of his 89 pitches for strikes (59.6 percent), The offense gave him enough run support for him to qualify him for the win; the final was 15-2.

It was his third consecutive start of exactly five innings; including Saturday, he’s averaging 4.71 innings in seven starts since the demotion. His ERA over that span is 6.00. Maybe his innings are being limited as the season goes on, or he’s experimenting in games. But a top prospect not shutting down Triple-A teams on a regular basis is a sign that he’s not ready to come back up.

Elsewhere in the organization:

Binghamton took another beating from Akron, losing Game 2 of the series 12-3. The Rumble Ponies were blown out 11-0 on Friday. On Saturday, the RubberDucks scored four in the top of the first inning off Danis Correa and Gabriel Rodriguez.

Clay Holmes’ scheduled rehab start for Brooklyn was postponed because of rain. Holmes threw a live bullpen session of about 45 pitches instead, MLB.com reported. The rainout will be made up as part of a doubleheader Sunday afternoon.

St. Lucie fell behind big early and lost to Palm Beach 7-4. The Cardinals jumped on opener Joel Diaz for three runs in the bottom of the first, although just one of them was earned thanks to center fielder D’Andre Smith committing a three-run error on a single.

The FCL Mets were off Saturday. The entire Dominican Summer League was off ahead of its All-Star Game on Sunday. Outfielders Cleiner Ramirez and Jonnhan Sanchez and right-hander Abner Meza were chosen to represent the Mets on the National League squad.

Mets Transactions

• New York Mets sent CF Luis Robert Jr. on a rehab assignment to Syracuse Mets.

Melendez Keeps The Power On For Syracuse

MJ Melendez hit two more home runs and drove in four in the Mets' rout. His three-run blast in the fifth gave Syracuse a 10-2 lead. He now has homered four times in his last four games and eight times in 12 games overall since being optioned to Triple-A on June 26. 

The Mets hit four homers in all Saturday. Christoper Morel and Luis Robert Jr. also went deep. Robert is back at Syracuse for more rehab work. He played eight innings in center field.

As for the Mets' non-veterans, Yonny Hernández went 3-for-4 with two RBIs, and Nick Morabito reached base four times (three of them walks) and stole two bases.

Tong handed the bullpen a big lead, and it responded with four scoreless frames, one each by Dan Hammer, Matt Turner, Dylan Ross, and Matt Seelinger. The quartet combined for seven strikeouts.

Rumble Ponies Beaten Up Again

Binghamton has been outscored 23-3 in the first two games of this weekend series. Akron scored its runs Saturday over three, four-run innings, starting with the first frame. Correa got just two outs before being replaced by Rodriguez. A wild pitch and an error contributed to the unraveling. 

For the game, Binghamton pitchers issued 11 walks to go with eight hits allowed. Brendan Girton walked two before serving up a game-breaking grand slam in the seventh. On the plus side, Rumble Ponies hurlers struck out 13.

Nick Lorusso hit his 16th home run of the season, a two-run shot in the bottom of the seventh, for Binghamton. Akron tacked on four in the ninth against Brian Metoyer with a bases-loaded hit by pitch and a three-run triple.

Lorusso, Kevin Parada, Jaylen Palmer and Nick Roselli each had two hits in the loss.

Rough First Inning Sinks St. Lucie

Most of the damage in the opening frame came from one play. Smith failed to field Brayden Smith's single with two runners on base. Both runners scored, and Smith circled the bases on the error.

After St. Lucie answered with two runs in the second on a Chase Meggers RBI single and a Jeremy Rodriguez fielder's choice grounder, Palm Beach pulled away against Christian Rodriguez with single runs in the third and fourth and two runs in the fifth.

Antonio Jimenez cut the deficit to 7-3 with a solo homer in the sixth, his sixth round-tripper of the season. Rodriguez added an RBI groundout in the ninth for the final margin. Both of Rodriguez's run-scoring grounders brought in Simon Juan.

Rehabbing major-leaguer Mike Tauchman played eight innings in left field and went 0-for-4 at the plate.

Top-20 Prospect Performance

1. Jonah Tong: 5 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, 2 K (W)
2. Jack Wenninger: DNP
3. Ryan Clifford: 0-for-3, 2 BB, 2 K
4. Elian Pena: 1-for-4, K
5. Nick Morabito: 1-for-2, RBI, 3 BB, 2 SB
6. Jacob Reimer: DNP
7. Mitch Voit: DNP
8. Jonathan Santucci: DNP
9. Zach Thornton: MLB
10. Chris Suero: DNP
11. Will Watson: DNP
12. Wandy Asigen: DNP
13. Eli Serrano III: DNP
14. Randy Guzman: DNP
15. Dylan Ross: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 K
16. Ryan Lambert: DNP
17. Antonio Jimenez: 1-for-4, HR, RBI, K
18. R.J. Gordon: DNP
19. Jonathan Pintaro: DNP
20. Marco Vargas: DNP

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