Mets pitching prospects Jonah Tong, Nolan McLean deliver dominant outings for Binghamton and Syracuse

The Mets' duo of pitching prospects shone on Thursday evening as Nolan McLean and Jonah Tong provided their respective teams with strong starts in the minors.

At Double-A Binghamton, Tong pitched five innings (79 pitches/53 strikes), allowing one run on three hits, no walks and striking out six batters. It's the ninth consecutive start where Tong went at least five innings.

Tong's one lone run came early in this game. In the first inning, Aidan Miller of the Fightin Phils picked up a leadoff single off of Tong before stealing second and advancing to third base on a throwing error by catcher Kevin Parada. Tong bounced back to strike out the next batter, but a Hendry Mendez groundout allowed Miller to score from third base. After a two-out single by Paul McIntosh, the first inning was done and the Fightin Phils would get just one more baserunner off of Tong the rest of the game.

Tong punctuated his night by striking out the side in the fifth inning.

Despite his performance on Thursday, Tong's ERA actually went up a tick to 1.72, but still remains one of the best pitchers in Double-A.

With Triple-A Syracuse, McLean helped the team win their fourth straight game on Thursday.

The right-hander pitched a career-long 7.1 innings (85 pitches/55 strikes), allowing two runs on four hits, no walks and striking out six batters. McLean is now 4-4 in 13 games (10 starts) with Triple-A, pitching to a 3.01 ERA and a 1.13 WHIP.

Similar to Tong down in Double-A, the opponent got all their runs in one inning off of McLean. In the second, Cavan Biggio doubled off of McLean to lead off the inning. Peyton Wilson drove in Biggio with a two-out double. Nick Pratto followed with a single to drive in Wilon to give Omaha the early 2-0 lead.

But that's all Omaha would get off of McLean, who would get just one more hit the rest of the game off of the Mets' pitching prospect.

On the Syracuse offensive side, prospect Drew Gilbert went 0-for-4, but veteran Joey Meneses hit a three-run bomb off of former Cy Young winner Dallas Keuchel to give Syracuse the lead for good and help McLean pick up his fourth win.

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