MLB

Dickey’s knuckler buckles Phillies in Mets shutout

Mike Pelfrey. Johan Santana. R.A. Dickey?

After outstanding performances from the team’s two top starters against the Yankees, the Mets weren’t sure what they would get out of the rest of their rotation.

Last night, Dickey gave them more of the same.

With the Mets still dealing with distractions, the 35-year-old shut down the Phillies over six innings in an 8-0 win at Citi Field.

Dickey baffled the NL East leaders and displayed a chink in their armor: If you want to beat Philadelphia, throw a knuckleballer at them.

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He was the second straight knuckler to baffle the Phillies, after Boston’s Tim Wakefield held them scoreless over eight innings in a win on Sunday and then gave Dickey, whom he has mentored, some advice.

On his way to the park yesterday, Dickey talked to Wakefield, who helped teach him the pitch.

“There’s not much advice he can give me,” Dickey said. “Just, ‘Throw a knuckleball.’ He told me couple of fastball locations to guys.”

And Dickey kept them off-balance enough to give the Mets their fourth win in five games and get them back to .500 — leaving them just four games behind the Phillies.

“We beat the Yankees and people say we’re still not good enough,” said Jeff Francoeur, who snapped an 0-for-12 skid by going 2-for-3 with a pair of RBIs. “We wanted to show different.”

Last night, they did.

“This was what the offense was supposed to do out of spring training,” Francoeur said. “Sometimes it takes a little while . . . All year, people looked at this homestand and we’re 3-1 against the two teams that went to the World Series last year.”

“This is probably our best baseball of the season,” said Rod Barajas, who added two hits.

Much of the credit goes to pitchers like Dickey and Hisanori Takahashi. Manager Jerry Manuel said that the two unheralded starters merited another shot.

“If we get another good outing when these guys start, it’s a definite confidence boost,” Manuel said of the rotation, which is 4-0 with a 0.93 ERA over the team’s last eight games.

Dickey helped that cause despite loading the bases with no one out in the second. He started a double play when Carlos Ruiz grounded back to him and followed that up by a strikeout of Jamie Moyer — after getting hit with a line drive on his non-pitching elbow.

“It was scary at first,” said Dickey, who got an X-ray on the elbow during the game but expects to make his next start. “I couldn’t feel my hand.”

In the next inning, he escaped trouble again, getting Raul Ibanez to line out to short with the bases loaded.

He made it through six before telling Manuel he’d had enough, but that was plenty.

Especially with Raul Valdes, who pitched out of trouble in the seventh, tossing three scoreless innings for his first save and doubling in a run.

“The way he performed those first two innings, he got out of trouble and deserved the opportunity for the save,” Manuel said.

And the Mets started off yet another crucial series with a victory.

“There’s never a dull moment, put it that way,” Jason Bay said. “I think that’s a testament to how we are still playing baseball here.”

dan.martin@nypost.com