Mets8

Dodgers0

The last-place Mets transformed back into the NL champions last night.

They knocked Kevin Brown out after just four innings. Darren Bragg drove in four runs. Robin Ventura launched a solo shot. They committed no errors. They dominated the Dodgers, 8-0, at cold Shea.

The man who supplied the first six Dodger zeroes was ace Al Leiter and this left just one true angle, according to manager Bobby Valentine.

“I thought Al was the story, tonight,” sports editor Valentine said. “Al was fabulous.”

After missing nearly a month with a strained ligament in his left elbow, Leiter (1-3) returned and threw six shutout innings, throwing 88 pitches, displaying a 90-plus mph fastball and an effective curve, which blended nicely with his always devastating cutter.

The curve was most important. It was the pitch that bothered Leiter the most since he went on the DL April 21. So warming up, he didn’t break them off, not wanting to over-extend the elbow.

When the game began, Leiter sliced off deuces to strike out Gary Sheffield in the first, Chad Kreuter in the second and Shawn Green in the fourth.

Leiter looked so good that he affected Dodger manager Jim Tracy’s decision on Brown, who came in with a league-best 1.09 ERA.

The Dodgers have trouble scoring, so when the Mets put up five runs in the first four innings, Tracy put up his version of the white flag by taking out Brown.

“Rather than let him to continue throwing pitches when it looked like offensively we weren’t going to mount much of a threat tonight, why do that?” Tracy said.

Turk Wendell took over for Leiter in ths seventh and put three zeroes on the board to pick up his first save. It was the Mets’ third win in 12 games.

Does this turn it around? It worked in ’99 when the Mets were 27-28 and they fired three coaches before Leiter began the Mets’ torrid play by besting Roger Clemens at Yankee Stadium.

Leiter’s opening pitch in almost a month was a 93-mph fastball that began a two-strikeout 1-2-3 first inning. In the second, fourth and sixth, he allowed runners into scoring position, but none scored. He said he felt a little nervous.

“My nerves are not so much is my arm going to fall off or if I’m going to pitch poorly, but just the nerves of the excitement of the moment and the excitement of executing,” said Leiter, who added afterward his elbow felt normal soreness.

As if the calendar read 2000, the Mets played with a lead last night.

In the third, the emerging Desi Relaford and Bragg gave the Mets the initial advantage against Brown. Relaford, who again started for Rey Ordonez, shot a single into right, stole second and scored on Bragg’s single to center.

“He’s been a spark,” Valentine said of Bragg.

In the fourth, the Mets batters blasted Brown. Ventura began the inning by knocking his solo shot into the mezzanine in right.

Back-to-back singles from Tsuyoshi Shinjo and Todd Zeile set up Relaford, who responded with a run-scoring double into right-center. Zeile scored on a passed ball and Relaford came home on a Timo Perez single to right.

It was an actual rally against Brown, no less. A team that’s been beaten by guys named Shawn Chacon (Rockies) and Chad Zerbe (Giants) was beating one of the best pitchers in the NL. An explanation would be appreciated.

“I don’t know,” Ventura said. “If I knew the answer to that, it would never happen.”

Bragg extended the Mets’ lead in the eighth by belting a three-run double. Bragg’s chances of making the team were eliminated in the spring when he had a hamstring problem. But now he is here.

“I know I have skills,” Bragg said.

So does Leiter. Do the Mets? They need to build. Kevin Appier receives the ball today.