MIAMI — One rough inning wasn’t going to sabotage Jonah Tong’s major league return. 

Back to the laboratory after allowing four runs in the second inning Monday, the rookie right-hander utilized a steady array of changeups and cutters for his final three frames, largely avoiding his four-seam fastball. The adjustment helped Tong finish strong. 

Tong got the win, and the Mets won for the fourth time in five games, 9-4 over the Marlins. 

This team playing for next season has started reevaluating the 23-year-old Tong, a third rookie to join Nolan McLean and Zac Thornton in the rotation. 

“Last year, I felt like a kid going out there every time, being shell-shocked,” said Tong, who started five games late in 2025. “Now, it’s more like my feet are kind of more set than they were last year and it’s just go out there and do my job.” 

Tong allowed four earned runs on four hits and one walk with a hit batsman over five innings and struck out seven. It was a welcome return to the major leagues for Tong (who had two previous stints with the club) after he pitched to a 0.84 ERA in his last four starts for Triple-A Syracuse. 

Tong’s major misstep on this day was the three-run homer he surrendered to Graham Pauley in the second inning. 

“Really pleased with the outing,” interim manager Andy Green said. “The second inning is one of those things that the only hits he gives up all day are sequenced together right there, and then the home run bites pretty hard. But to watch him be a cutthroat competitor, get back in there and go back at them for the next three innings, it was really good. 

“It’s what you want to see from him. I know he’s not going to love the line at the end of the day, with four runs coming in, but the way he pitched today is way better than that line is going to indicate.” 

Tong said he turned to his cutter and changeup (and away from his four-seamer) as the game progressed with an eye toward quicker outs. 

“It was more quality of contact and assessing that we wanted to go deeper into the game and obviously we needed to get some quicker outs,” Tong said. “It was just seeing what was in front of us.” 

A 16-hit attack carried the Mets, who were swept in three games at this ballpark Memorial Day weekend and had lost four straight here overall, including Game 162 last season, when they fell a victory short of the playoffs. 

The Mets capitalized on sloppy Miami defense to score the game’s first run. Bo Bichette hit a grounder that Javier Sanoja threw into left field while attempting to get the force at second, allowing Juan Soto to score. Bichette scored when catcher Joe Mack threw errantly to second base while attempting to nail Carson Benge stealing. 

Nick Morabito’s RBI single in the third followed a Brett Baty double and gave the Mets a 3-0 lead against Eury Pérez. 

Tong struck out the first four batters he faced before getting knocked around in the second inning. After Sanoja delivered an RBI triple, Tong walked Owen Caissie and surrendered a three-run homer to Pauley that gave the Marlins a 4-3 lead. Pauley hit a 95 mph four-seamer on the outside corner over the right field fence. 

“It wasn’t even the home run — it was more just the walk before that,” Tong said. “That kind of sucked because I can live with the hits, it’s just I can control that part with the walk. Other than that, it’s just the same thing after every pitch, and it’s really easy to just move on from that.” 

Francisco Alvarez’s RBI single in the fourth tied the game after Marcus Semien hit a leadoff double and A.J. Ewing reached on an infield single. 

Bichette’s RBI single in the fifth reclaimed the lead for the Mets. With two outs, Ewing stroked a two-run double that extended the Mets lead to 7-4. The rally started with singles by Francisco Lindor and Soto. 

Semien’s RBI double in the sixth widened the Mets lead to 8-4 before Ewing delivered his third hit of the game, an RBI single. 

“I thought we were great up and down the lineup,” Green said.