METS 6

BRAVES 5

Darren Oliver knew a few days ago, as did Pedro Martinez. But Rick Peterson, Willie Randolph and Omar Minaya were completely unaware, and only they had the power to stop it.

Victor Zambrano took the mound yesterday with discomfort in his right elbow, pain he revealed to some teammates but not to management. He wouldn’t listen to teammates who wanted him to shut it down after his pregame bullpen session, and he wouldn’t relent when Randolph and a trainer visited him during a second-inning at-bat against the Braves’ Andruw Jones.

“I’m fine,” Zambrano told Randolph, who asked three times.

Shortstop Jose Reyes lingered at the mound and also tried to talk Zambrano off the mound – and off the ledge.

“If you feel something, man, get out of the game,” Reyes said. “Why do you want to stay here if you feel something in your elbow or something like that?”

“I feel fine,” Zambrano responded.

“So I said, all right, and you guys see what happened,” Reyes said after the Mets’ 6-5 victory over Atlanta.

Two pitches later, after whiffing Jones on a tremendous 74 mph changeup, Zambrano left the mound and sprinted into the dugout in excruciating pain. He was crying in the clubhouse, and Martinez said Zambrano’s elbow swelled up like “a balloon.”

Zambrano took an X-ray at Shea and was taken to the Hospital for Special Surgery for an MRI exam.

“It’s sad,” Peterson said. “You feel like you’ve been punched in the soul.”

The Mets will release the MRI results today, but Zambrano likely will be placed on the disabled list and the Mets will need another starter, possibly Jeremi Gonzalez from Triple-A Norfolk.

They’ll need to dip further into their farm system unless they move Oliver into the rotation. Before the game, the Mets put John Maine on the DL and recalled Bartolome Fortunato. Jose Lima is scheduled to start today.

A Mets official said, as of now, Aaron Heilman isn’t a starting option.

“I kinda knew coming into the game that something like that could happen,” said Oliver, who worked four innings of emergency relief. “He was feeling kinda sore in his elbow, so it wasn’t that big of a shock.

“Some things you guys don’t know about we know, know what I mean?”

Randolph said, “Players talk [amongst themselves] all the time. No one said anything to me.

“I talk to Victor all the time. He was in my office a couple days ago talking about general stuff. He never said a word to me about anything.”

Martinez, Zambrano’s best friend on the team, lashed out at the media for turning Zambrano into a cartoon villain. Acquired from Tampa Bay for first-round pick Scott Kazmir at the 2004 trade deadline, Zambrano has been a pinata for fans and media due to inconsistency.

Martinez said Zambrano has been hurt all year and opted to pitch yesterday “because of the damn pressure you guys put on him.”

“Before you guys really hurt a guy, you need to do a little research,” Martinez said. “We’re human beings, and we’re trying to do a job.

“I feel terribly sad for him.”

Martinez didn’t know the pain was that bad, though, and said if he had known, he would have physically restrained Zambrano from pitching.

With a four-run seventh inning, the Mets (21-9) rallied for then held on to another victory over Atlanta, one that puts nine games between them and the Braves in the NL East.

Kaz Matsui ripped a two-run, tie-breaking double to right off Tim Hudson, and five relievers picked up the slack for Zambrano. Jorge Julio escaped his own jam in the ninth, stranding the tying run on third and the go-ahead run on first.

Additional reporting by Brian Lewis.