Don Baylor admitted he wanted this game, perhaps more than others that came before it, which is why he put several of his tired veterans on the field last night to face the Mets.

“I pushed some guys, not giving them the day off,” Baylor said.

One of the vets he trotted out there was Ron Coomer. Good move by Baylor, the manager who has the surprising Cubs in first place.

In the midst of a dreadful, prolonged drought, Coomer found an oasis this week at Shea. He hit a pinch-hit home run in the opener of the series, a mere appetizer for the entree he served up last night as the Cubs ravaged the Mets 13-4.

“He’s struggled for a while, and I’ve kept on running him out there, waiting for a day like this,” Baylor said.

Coomer entered the evening mired in a brutal slump (3-for-32 in his last 10 games) and exited having feasted on nearly every alleged pitcher the Mets put on the mound. The Cub third baseman, a less-than-robust .249 hitter, went 4-for-5 with a single, two doubles and a home run, accounting for four RBIs, giving Chicago the sort of unexpected excellence that the Mets have been unable to generate.

“Any time you get four hits in a game, that’s usually pretty good,” Coomer said, “unless you play like 18 innings.”

The Cubs needed just the requisite nine to slay the Mets, and it wasn’t only Coomer who generated the damage. Jason Bere, the Cubs’ starting pitcher, did not allow a hit until the fifth inning. Even rarer was Bere’s odd third-inning experience. As his teammate batted around and scored seven runs off poor Steve Trachsel, Bere did more than his share. He singled to lead off the big inning and later doubled in two runs, giving him two hits in the same inning.

“That’s a first,” Bere said. “My theory of hitting is if you see a fastball you think you can hit you swing, otherwise try not to embarrass yourself.”