For the first time in a regular-season game, ex-Mets RHP Zack Wheeler faced his former team.

While he approached Sunday afternoon's matchup at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia "like another game," Wheeler rode a jolt of adrenaline into the Phillies' 6-2 win over the Mets.

"My adrenaline was going, I was out there and I got excited, but once you get out there, you have to settle those nerves and just remember it's another game, even though you know those guys and (are) competing against them," Wheeler said. "But like I said, you just have to calm yourself down and just go out there and just pitch."

Wheeler, who signed with the Phillies for five years and $118 million last December, spent 2011-19 in the Mets organization. He got the best of his former teammates in a seven-inning start, yielding two runs on six hits while striking out four and walking one.

"I thought (Wheeler) was great," said Phillies manager Joe Girardi. "I mean, this is a (Mets) lineup that's tough to get to. You get through the top of that order and they make you work so hard. Those first three hitters (Brandon Nimmo, Michael Conforto and J.D. Davis) make you work so hard to get through them and you always worry about pitch counts.

"But again, as the game went on, he got sharper, he got more efficient. I think he got better with his stuff. The one thing that I have not seen a whole lot from Zach is emotion. So he was kind of the same guy today as I see him every day. And even after the game, when we took him out, he was the same guy as he is every day. So I think that's a great trait for a starting pitcher because I think they're able to be consistent in what they do every time they go out."

In five seasons with the Mets over a seven-year span from 2013-19, Wheeler went 44-38, while pitching to a 3.77 ERA. His 2019 season saw him go 11-8 with a 3.96 ERA and a career-high 195 strikeouts to 50 walks in 195.1 innings through 31 starts.

"We just treated it like another game," said Wheeler, who improved to 3-0 with a 2.81 ERA with 12 strikeouts to six walks in 25.2 innings through four starts on the 2020 season. "I put my info in and (Phillies catcher) Andrew (Knapp) had a good game plan, as it was, and we just followed that and it went well."

"You're facing your old team, you want to go out there and do well -- there's no way around it," Wheeler said. "It's nothing personal against those guys, but I enjoyed my time over there made a lot of good friends, like I said, and so, it was just fun competing against them."

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