NEW YORK — Zack Wheeler ground up Miami over eight innings, Wilson Ramos and Pete Alonso homered, and the New York Mets beat the Marlins 5-0 Tuesday night for their 12th win in 13 games.

The hard-charging Mets improved to 58-56 a night after surpassing the .500 mark for the first time since early May. New York has the best record in baseball since the All-Star break and improbably entered the day 2 1/2 games behind Philadelphia for an NL wild card despite looking like trade deadline sellers in mid-July.

Wheeler (9-6) had his bags packed and was ready to be dealt, but he remained in Flushing to aid an unlikely playoff chase. After throwing seven scoreless innings against the White Sox a day after the deadline, he cruised through eight on 99 pitches against the Marlins, allowing eight hits and striking out five with 13 groundball outs.

Todd Frazier had an RBI double in the first inning and Ramos added a three-run homer in the third. Alonso smoked a solo shot in the fifth, his second connection in two games after going nine without one. Alonso has 36 homers for the season.

Miami right-hander Hector Noesi (0-1) allowed five runs over five innings in his first major league appearance since 2015.

New York will try to complete a four-game sweep of the Marlins on Wednesday with a mostly fresh bullpen.

Frazier hit an RBI double off the glove of left fielder Jon Berti in the first inning, the sixth straight game New York scored in its first turn at bat.

Wheeler had two runners on with one out in the sixth and seventh innings but escaped both jams. He ended the sixth with consecutive strikeouts and got out of the seventh with another punchout and by breaking pinch-hitter Harold Ramirez’s bat on a soft lineout.

After Wheeler stranded another runner in the eighth, Robert Gsellman pitched the ninth.

A day after homering in his major league debut, Marlins infielder Isan Diaz was hitless with three strikeouts.

BREWERS 4, PIRATES 3: Yasmani Grandal had two doubles and an RBI and Milwaukee, without a resting Christian Yelich, won at Pittsburgh.

Yelich sat one day after getting four hits, including two home runs, in Milwaukee’s 9-7 win over Pittsburgh on Monday. The day off was intended to manage a nagging back injury Yelich has been dealing with this season.

AMERICAN LEAGUE

WHITE SOX 5, TIGERS 3: Jose Abreu homered and drove in three runs and Dylan Cease pitched five solid innings to lead Chicago in the opener of a doubleheader at Detroit.

Welington Castillo also homered for the White Sox, and Jake Rogers went deep for Detroit.

Cease (2-4) allowed two runs and seven hits, striking out six with one walk.