Rumble Ponies' Tong earns Eastern League Pitcher of the Month in May
The 21-year-old Top-100 MLB prospect finished the month with a 1.35 ERA, .90 WHIP, .122 batting average against, and 42 strikeouts in five starts. Tong notably nearly completed a seven-inning perfect game against Reading on May 10, but exited with 6 2/3 perfect innings and 13 strikeouts before the perfecto was finished off.
Tong, New York's No. 4 prospect, is the first Rumble Ponies pitcher to win the award since Dom Hamel in 2023. The fireballer has come into his own as both a pitcher and a professional since being drafted in the seventh round of the 2022 MLB Amateur Draft. On top of a stellar May, Tong began his summer with five innings of no-hit baseball against Somerset on June 4, tallying 11 strikeouts in the process.
The Rumble Ponies, as of June 5, are rolling along on a winning streak that has reached 11 games— the longest such streak since the B-Mets in 2006. Binghamton currently sits in first place in the Eastern League (35-17).
Tong, among a wide majority of young arms in the Mets organization, is beginning to sparkle under the lights of scouts and prospect ranking outlets across the country for the work being displayed.
The Mets' farm system currently has the lowest combined ERA across all of the affiliate teams (St. Lucie, Brooklyn, Binghamton, and Syracuse) among any organization in MLB.
Tong also has the second-most strikeouts in all of Minor League Baseball with 83, in just 49 innings pitched.
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