Satisfying sweep

LOS ANGELES – Shawn Green and the hitters started fast, Billy Wagner closed it out quickly, and now the New York Mets are headed to the National League Championship Series.

A dominant offense and reliable bullpen led the way as the Mets completed their first postseason sweep since 1969, beating the Los Angeles Dodgers 9-5 in Game 3 Saturday night.

After rolling in the first round, the Mets will open the NLCS at Shea Stadium on Wednesday against the San Diego-St. Louis winner. The Cardinals lead 2-1 in that best-of-5 series.

Green had three hits and two RBIs against his former team in a game decided by the bullpens after starters Steve Trachsel and Greg Maddux made early exits.

“The irony of this is crazy, to be celebrating in the visiting clubhouse,” said Green, who played for the Dodgers from 2000-04 and was acquired by the Mets from Arizona on Aug. 22.

“It’s a little weird, after doing this in ‘04 on the other side of the field. I was actually out there hoping that the last ball came to me, and it did. It feels incredible,” he said.

For the Dodgers, it was a familiar ending. They are 1-12 in postseason games since 1988, when they beat the Mets in the NLCS and the Oakland Athletics in the World Series.

Jeff Kent had four hits, including a two-run homer, for Los Angeles.

“We just got ouplayed – pitching, hitting, defense – but there’s no sense in being specific,” Kent said. “It doesn’t really matter. We got beat by a team that was playing better baseball than us.

“We got, what, 16 hits and scored five runs? That’s one you shake your head at and wonder why. They got two less hits than we did and scored almost twice as many runs.”

The Mets, with manager Willie Randolph guiding a roster assembled by general manager Omar Minaya, had the East championship nearly wrapped up by the All-Star break. But having to go without injured Pedro Martinez and Orlando Hernandez against the Dodgers seemed to make for a dicey proposition.

That turned out not to be the case because the Mets scored 19 runs in the three games, and their bullpen did its job. The relievers needed to come through – Mets starters pitched only 132/3 innings in the series.

Hardly a repeat from 1969, when the Tom Seaver-led Mets swept the best-of-5 NLCS from Atlanta.