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One playoff game under his belt, and Canadian-born rookie catcher Russell Martin can say he's seen everything.

Not to mention having the best, if not the most comfortable, seat in the house yesterday at Carlos Delgado's playoff coming-out party in the New York Mets' 6-5 win over Martin's Los Angeles Dodgers in the first game of their best-of-five National League Division Series.

It was a game in which the Dodgers ran into two outs at the plate on the same play — a double by Martin — and Delgado tied a Mets postseason record with four hits, including a 470-foot home run and an opposite-field single that drove in the go-ahead run.

"Carlos has been a tremendous performer and hitter his whole career and it's nice to see him get an opportunity on this type of stage and come through," Mets manager Willie Randolph said of Delgado, who played 1,711 regular-season games before his first postseason at-bat.

"He's an excellent hitter, and I'm not talking about just hitting home runs. He understands that in this environment, with every play being crucial, homers are not always the way to go."

Sometimes the charity of others helps, too. That was the case in the second inning, when the Dodgers had the first five hitters reach base and scored only one run. After Jeff Kent led off with a single and J.D. Drew reached on an infield hit, Martin, who was born in Toronto and raised in Montreal, drove the ball to the base of the wall in right field.

Drew was on Kent's heels, and both players raced around third base as Rich Donnelly, the Dodgers' third base coach, stood aghast. Kent was tagged out by Mets catcher Paul Lo Duca, who blocked the plate on a good relay throw from Jose Valentin. Then, with Randolph and his teammates screaming at him, Lo Duca tagged out Drew.

"He was so close," Kent said, "that he stepped on the back of my leg."

Martin said: "I saw a bunch of people at third base and all I was thinking was, 'Man, I hope at least one of them score.' "

They didn't, even though Martin scored when the batter after him, Marlon Anderson, doubled, and even though they rallied to tie the score 4-4 on a two-out, two-run double by Nomar Garciaparra in the seventh inning.

The Dodgers scored a run in the ninth inning and had Garciaparra at the plate with the potential tying run at second base. But Mets closer Billy Wagner struck him out to end the game.

Donnelly did not throw up his hands or yell stop at either Kent or Drew, even though Martin's ball took a friendly bounce to Mets right fielder Shawn Green.

"Actually, had I kept running, I probably could have scored even after [Lo Duca] tagged Jeff," Drew said. "But I slowed down because, you know, I was just so mind-boggled. I mean, I thought Jeff was going to score easily. I thought the play at the plate was going to be on me."

Kent did not come far enough down the line toward third base to get a good read on Martin's ball, but he was yelling "Let's go, let's go." Drew, it seems, took it literally, even though he should have been aware of Kent's limitations as a runner.

"I looked up and was ready to hold up Jeff, but then I saw J.D. and, well, I knew one of them was going to be out," Donnelly said. "I just hoped the other scored. Or that J.D. held up. I mean, the last thing you want is to hold up two guys at third base."

As it turned out, the Dodgers scored their first run in that inning when Anderson doubled in Martin.

David Wright was 2-for-4 and batted in two runs to help out Delgado, Cliff Floyd added a solo homer and the Mets had just enough relief pitching to aid rookie John Maine, an emergency starter when Orlando Hernandez was left off the postseason roster because of a pulled calf muscle.

The go-ahead run, driven in by Delgado, was scored after Jose Reyes drew a leadoff walk and stole second base. Delgado's single moved Carlos Beltran to third, and Beltran scored the insurance run on Wright's single.

Delgado threw his fist in the air and jumped up when he saw Reyes score. What's up with that? "Windmill fist pump," Delgado said, unable to suppress a wide smile. "I was happy."