Starting pitching has been the deciding factor all season for the New York Mets, during good stretches and bad.

New York got off to a National League-best 45-24 start thanks to fantastic contributions from a number of unlikely heroes in the rotation. But some of those heroes have come back to earth, while others have been lost for the season to injuries.

With marquee names like Clay Holmes and Kodai Senga struggling, the Mets have turned things over to the youth movement, as top prospects Nolan McLean and Jonah Tong both made their big-league debuts in August.

Tong was impressive in his first outing, and McLean has already had three starts, and they've all been wins. There's an argument to be made that he's already the ace of the staff, sporting a 0.89 ERA and 0.69 WHIP through 20 1/3 i

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