Exactly one week ago, everyone assumed that Zack Wheeler was on his way out of town, as he appeared to be the most likely Met to be traded at the deadline. Rumors of a Wheeler trade swirled right up until the last minute of the deadline, but once the dust settled, it was clear that Wheeler was staying put as the Mets were not ready to give up on this season.

Since then, the Mets had won seven of their last eight games, pushing themselves squarely in the middle of Wild Card contention. Wheeler pitched a gem in his last time out on Thursday, one day removed from the deadline, looking like a man who had the weight of the world lifted from his shoulders.

In that start against the Chicago White Sox, the right-hander pitched seven innings of scoreless ball, allowing just four hits, walking none and striking out seven. The Mets took that game by a score of 4-2 and Wheeler earned his eighth win of the season.

Last night’s game against the Marlins was more of the same, as Wheeler looked in complete control from start to finish. In the first inning, budding Mets-killer Jon Berti (.380 average with six extra-base hits in six games vs. NYM) ripped a hard ground ball that rolled all the way to the wall for a double against Wheeler. Having a runner in scoring position, with one out, did not faze Wheeler as retired the next two batters to end the inning.

The 29-year-old then worked around a single in each of the next two frames, by getting a double play to end each inning. Albeit with the second one coming in unconventional fashion.

In the third inning, with a runner on first base, Miguel Rojas hit a ground ball to Adeiny Hechavarria. Hechavarria tossed the ball to Luis Guillorme for the force out at second, but Guillorme then sailed his throw to first base for what could have been an error. Unfortunately for Rojas, he planted his leg wrong on his way to first and tumbled before even touching the bag, suffering what appeared to be a gruesome injury. The throw from Guillorme ricocheted off the wall and Pete Alonso was able to place a tag on the fallen Rojas to end the inning.

Berti came up to the plate to lead off the fourth inning and hit yet another double off Wheeler, but Zack settled down and stranded him at second. In the fifth inning, Wheeler worked around another base hit by inducing his third inning-ending double play of the game.

The sixth inning presented Wheeler with his toughest task of the game, as it was the first time the Marlins had two runners on base in the same inning. Wheeler had allowed a base hit to Martin Prado to lead off the inning, before getting Curtis Granderson to ground out. He then got another ground ball, but no out was recorded on the play as Guillorme failed to touch second base in an attempt to turn another double play. With heavy traffic on the bases, Wheeler buckled down to struck out the next two batters ending the inning.

In the seventh, Wheeler once again stranded two runners and entered the eighth inning having thrown just 82 pitches. If not for a nine-pitch walk drawn by Granderson to lead off the eighth, Wheeler may have had the chance to finish off the complete-game shutout, but he instead had to settle for an eight-inning gem.

All told, Wheeler allowed eight hits, walked one and struck out five, in route to picking up his team-leading ninth win of the season. Wheeler was throwing a heavy two-seam fastball all game, which the Marlins could not seem to hit out of the infield, breaking six of their bats in the process. Wheeler induced 13 groundouts, with only one flyout recorded in the outfield all game.

Prior to the trade deadline, Wheeler’s ERA sat at 4.71 on the season. Since then, he has lowered his ERA all the way down to 4.20. Wheeler also registered his ninth win of the season as compared to his six losses and slightly lowered his WHIP to 1.22.

After the Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Philadelphia Phillies 8-4 late Tuesday night, the Mets now sit just 1.5 games out of the second Wild Card spot.

“We know how good we can be, how good we are, and we’re shooting for it,” Wheeler said. We got a good group of guys and the intensity’s up. We got a good chemistry going right now and we’re running off some ballgames and hopefully, we can continue that.”