A Win!
Morning Dose: Thursday, May 28
☀️ Good Morning:
So that’s what a win feels like.
You hit a few homers, score more than two runs and sweat out the final three outs.
We’ve been here before. Just not nearly as often as we had hoped when the season began.
Let’s jump right into some thoughts.
TAKEAWAYS:
🔹 Juan Soto continues to mash. Lost in all of the losing has been an incredible power surge from Soto. He hit another long ball last night, his eighth homer in his last 12 games, tied for the most in any 12-game span of his career, per ESPN Insights.
We could talk like people used to about Pete Alonso and note how only three of his home runs have come with runners on base this season. But we know that is truly reflective of the lineup around him this season. Soto is pulling the ball in the air a career-high 19.8% of the time and getting under nearly 30% of the balls he strikes. After a slow start, he’s been cleared for lift off at the plate.
🔹 Jonah Tong, good enough? It wasn’t the prettiest outing you will ever see. He allowed seven of the 19 batters he faced to reach base. He lasted only 3.2 innings. He committed an error. But he only allowed that one run. And in the strange way the MLB rulebook works, because he technically entered as a reliever instead of a starter, he earned the win.
“Some longer counts than I would’ve liked towards the end,” Tong noted after the game, via SNY. “There’s a lot of things I can work on moving forward, but overall I’m just happy that I was able to put together some clean innings for the guys.”
Going forward, the Mets will continue to be “creative” in how they use Tong in an opener or bulk role.
