MLB

Wheeler scuffles way through Mets debut

DUNEDIN, Fla. — After watching Zack Wheeler pitch against his team last year, Pedro Lopez, the manager of the High-A St. Lucie Mets, knew what the Mets were getting in exchange for Carlos Beltran.

“When I heard about the trade, I just couldn’t wait for those 24 hours to come around,” Lopez said. “These guys asked me if I knew him, and I said, ‘Wheeler? From the Giants? Yeah, and if we get him, we’re going to be in business.’ ”

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The Mets did, of course, get Wheeler for Beltran, and the hard-throwing right-hander made his debut pitching for Lopez with St. Lucie last night. Wheeler allowed four runs on seven hits in four innings, striking out four and walking none in a rain-shortened 9-1 loss to the Dunedin Blue Jays.

“I felt good,” Wheeler told The Post. “There really wasn’t that much pressure, I didn’t feel like, going into it.

“It hasn’t really been stressful, but I came out a little tight.”

Wheeler, who hit 99 three times on one gun and topped out at 96 on another, threw 54 strikes in 82 pitches. That total included 36 pitches in the first, when he allowed three runs on four hits.

Wheeler nearly made it out of the inning without suffering any damage. But with two on and two out, he left a 3-2 pitch up to Dunedin’s Ryan Schimpf, who lined it down the right-field line for a two-run triple, and later scored on a single by Brian Van Kirk.

“When you get two outs, you just try to put the person away,” Wheeler said. “You don’t want to let them get a lot of runs or hits when there’s two outs, because that’s when you’re supposed to shut them down all the way. I made a mistake, and that’s when they hit me tonight, when I left my fastball up. But, other than that, I felt pretty good.”

After the first, when Wheeler said he was struggling with his mechanics and losing some command of his pitches, he settled down. At one point, Wheeler retired a string of eight hitters in a row, before eventually giving up a two-out RBI single to Kevin Nolan in the fourth.

One thing Wheeler was pleased about was his control. After struggling with walks this season with the Giants, he decided to make some changes to his mechanics two starts before he was traded.

Since the switch, Wheeler has walked a combined two batters in his last 15 1/3 innings, after walking 45 batters in his first 76 2/3 innings this season.

“I’m back to what I was doing in high school — a high leg kick and high hands in my windup,” he said. “Before, the Giants tried to settle me down a little bit, and I guess settle down my motion.

“But I felt like I was counting . . . I was just thinking way too much. I had too much time, and it wasn’t really flowing. I just feel more comfortable now.”

tbontemps@nypost.com