The transformation of New York Mets left-hander Steven Matz into a bonafide back-end-of-the-rotation weapon looks to be nearly complete.

Inconsistency has long plagued the 28-year-old former second-round draft pick, but over the last eight weeks, Matz has turned a substantial corner.

From June 29 — eight days after the Mets appointed 82-year-old Phil Regan as the team’s new pitching coach — through his last start in Atlanta (six innings, two hits, one run), Matz pitched to a 3.29 ERA with 34 strikeouts and six walks over seven games (six starts, one relief appearance; 38.1 IP). That’s including his five-run, 3.2-inning effort versus Pittsburgh on August 2.

Among MLB starters with over 30 innings pitched during that span, Matz’ 2.67 FIP ranks fifth, his 1.45 walks per nine innings are tenth-best, and his 0.49 home runs allowed per nine is good for third in baseball.

With an offensively talented Cleveland squad heading into Citi Field and New York just two games out of a wild-card spot, the Mets would need Steven Matz at his best. What they got was more than sufficient.

The 28-year-old southpaw worked a perfect first, catching Cleveland’s slugging first baseman, Carlos Santana, looking at a high-inside, 94 MPH sinker to end the frame.

After retiring the newly-acquired Yasiel Puig (strikeout looking) and Jose Ramirez to start his second inning of work, Matz allowed a towering blast — just his third home run allowed since June 29 — to Jason Kipnis, putting Cleveland ahead, 1-0.

The Mets went ahead 2-1 in the bottom half of the second on J.D. Davis two-run homer into the batters’ eye in center field, and Matz protected his newfound lead in a scoreless third, working around Francisco Lindor‘s 31st double of the season with one out. Though, Matz wouldn’t be so lucky in the fourth.

After Puig reached on a Todd Frazier fielding error at third leading off the frame, Ramirez followed with a single on a sinker right down the heart of the plate and Kipnis took a high-middle, 94 MPH sinker back up the middle in the next at-bat to tie the game at two.

Matz set down Roberto Perez, Greg Allen, and struck out his counterpart, Shane Bieber, for the second time (looking; chest-high, 93 MPH sinker) to leave two runners stranded. Matz entered the fifth at an economic 64 pitches and needed just eight more to get through his second 1-2-3 inning of the night.

Now appearing to have found a comfortable groove, the left-hander struck out Puig looking at a sinker on the inside paint to start the sixth, got Ramirez looking at a gorgeous high-70s curveball, and induced an inning-ending fly-out from Kipnis to retire his ninth consecutive Cleveland batter.

At 87 pitches heading into the seventh — with a brand new two-run lead courtesy of Michael Conforto‘s Scooter Bomb in the bottom of the sixth — Matz struck out Perez swinging at an irresistible curve in the dirt but allowed a base hit to Allen and walked Franmil Reyes to end his evening after six-and-a-third innings of work, striking out seven with two walks on 98 pitches (58 strikes).

Justin Wilson took the ball with two of Matz’ baserunners lingering but struck out Lindor on three consecutive cutters and got Oscar Mercado flailing at an 89 MPH slider to keep his fellow southpaw’s line to an agreeable one earned run, lowering Matz’ ERA to 4.18 on the year.

Going back to that aforementioned June 29 date, Matz now has a 2.64 ERA with 41 strikeouts, eight walks, and 1.09 walks and hits per inning (54.2 innings).

Despite racking up just four swings-and-misses over the course of the evening, Matz picked up 14 called strikes on 43 sinkers thrown and 22 in total.

As we’ve seen in the past, when all of his pitches are working for him, Steven Matz can hang with the very best in the game. Just ask Shane Beiber and the Cleveland baseball club.