The New York Mets dropped the fourth game of their series against the Phillies due to a poor start from Jonah Tong.
The New York Mets lost to the Philadelphia Phillies, 7-2, as Jonah Tong submitted a poor start and the Mets offense did little in a game the Phillies basically had to have.
The Phillies came out sharp in this one as they got two off Tong in the first inning. The trouble for Tong started with a walk, and a single from Bryce Harper followed. Luis Arraez then hit a sacrifice fly to get the first run home, with a single from Alec Bohm bringing home another run to make it 2-0.
The Phillies doubled their lead in the third as walks once again got Tong in trouble when he gave Kyle Schwarber a free pass. Trea Turner doubled to drive Schwarber in, and he came home on a single by Arraez to make it 4-0.
Tong left in the fifth with two outs, and this start was another reason why the Mets have hesitated to install him as a full-tme member of the rotation. He gave up four runs on five hits with four walks to go with five strikeouts, with the walks being the big bugaboo. This isn’t exactly new, as he struggled with this issue at Triple-A Syracuse.
The Mets finally scored in the sixth as Bo Bichette hit a hanger into the second deck off Sanchez to make it 4-1. They got another run in the seventh on an RBI single from Brett Baty to cut the Phillies lead to two, but that was as close as the Mets got.
Philadelphia sealed the deal in the eighth inning off ol’ reliable, Kodai Senga, who continues to prove he should have no place on this team next year. Senga got just one out in the inning as he surrendered a triple to Justin Crawford after walking two hitters, and that made it 7-2 to close out the scoring.
The Mets got ten hits in this one, but they couldn’t do much with them as they wound up with a 2-2 split in the four-game series. A.J. Ewing and Francisco Alvarez both had two hit games, but the only extra base hit was a double from Mark Vientos.
The loss meant little to the Mets, but the win was huge for Philadelphia. It ensured that their lead over the Arizona Diamondbacks will be at least four games, with the Diamondbacks playing the New York Yankees as the Phils win was being completed.
