NEW YORK — Carlos Delgado's big bat and one embarrassing moment on the bases for Los Angeles helped the New York Mets get off to a successful start in the NL playoffs.

Minus two top starters, the Mets got a credible performance from emergency replacement John Maine and capitalized on a wild blunder by the Dodgers at home plate during a 6-5 victory Wednesday in Game 1.

"We needed this game, as far as momentum goes," New York third baseman David Wright said. "We have a team full of igniters. When a couple of these guys get going, it rubs off."

Billy Wagner earned his first postseason save, fanning Nomar Garciaparra with a runner on second for the final out of New York's first postseason game since losing the Subway Series in 2000.

Playing in the initial postseason game of his 14-year career, Delgado had four hits, a mammoth homer and the go-ahead RBI in the seventh inning.

Lifted with a 2-1 lead in the fifth, Maine got a break on a bizarre play when the Dodgers had two runners cut down at home plate.

With two on and none out in the second, rookie Russell Martin hit an opposite-field drive off the base of the right-field wall. But Jeff Kent hesitated at second base, J.D. Drew ran right up his back from first and they both turned for home only strides apart.

Kent was thrown out first on a quick, accurate relay from right fielder Shawn Green to second baseman Jose Valentin to Lo Duca.

"If I hold him, we've got two guys at third base," Dodgers third base coach Rich Donnelly said. "I was hoping they'd throw the ball away. I didn't really want to send Jeff. J.D. was right behind him, and I thought, one's going to be out and one's going to be safe."

After Kent was tagged, Drew was left in no-man's land, trapped about halfway between third and home. He tried to sneak past Lo Duca, who got spun around on the first play at the plate. But after struggling to his feet, the catcher turned his head, suddenly noticed Drew bearing down on him and applied a second tag.

Athletics 5, Twins 2

MINNEAPOLIS — The Oakland Athletics are one victory away from advancing to the AL championship series.

Sounds familiar, huh?

Trying to make a tough catch right after his Minnesota teammates tied the game with back-to-back home runs, Torii Hunter missed — and Mark Kotsay raced around the bases for a two-run, inside-the-park homer.

That lifted the A's over the Twins 5-2 on Wednesday, giving them a 2-0 lead in this first-round playoff series to take back home with two chances to oust their opponent.

Tigers-Yankees, ppd.

NEW YORK — Game 2 of the AL playoff series between Detroit and New York was postponed after a wait of nearly 2 hours — most of it with little or no rain falling.

Game 2 was rescheduled for 1:09 p.m. Thursday.