LOS ANGELES – Five games and a full week into the National League Championship Series, the Mets and Dodgers were unsettled Friday. Carlos Mendoza wants to avoid more of the same as the Mets continue trying to salvage their season.

“The last thing you want to do is wake up a team,” the manager said Saturday ahead of Game 6 on Sunday. “We are not. We’re going to keep playing our game and we’re not here to try to create.”

The Mets' 12-6 victory in Game 5 – the first of three straight wins if they hope to advance to the World Series – was marked by fleeting but heated exchanges between David Peterson and Max Muncy and Francisco Alvarez and Andy Pages.

Peterson-Muncy was first. At the end of the fourth, Peterson tried to throw inside with two sinkers. Those throws went a little too far inside and almost hit Muncy, so Muncy stared at him, Peterson said.

“I mean, I didn't try to meet him there,” he said. “I'm trying to get out. I didn't necessarily like the way he looked. If he feels there’s an intention behind it, that’s his prerogative.”

The plate appearance ended with Muncy striking out and Peterson handing off Pete Alonso's feed at the first base bag with his bare hands. When Peterson got it out, he turned to Muncy and muttered a vulgar remark that he later regretted.

“It’s going to happen,” Peterson said. “In hindsight, my kids are watching, there are kids in the stands watching. My emotions were overwhelming me at the moment.”

Two batters later, Pages hit a solo home run off Peterson, cutting the Dodgers' deficit to six. He dramatically overturned his bat before rounding the bases, angering Alvarez, who expressed this when Pages came to the plate.

“He did too much,” said Alvarez, also a soulful bat-flipper. “I also like pimping home runs because I think that’s part of the game right now. It's fun. It's part of the show. I like doing it, but in some moments you can do it, in some moments you can't. For example, when you're seven points behind in a playoff game and everyone is watching. It doesn't look good. He didn't respect my team. I just said to run the bases.”

Pages waved him away and raised a finger to his lips as if to tell Alvarez to shut up. “I don’t care what he said to me or signed,” Alvarez said. “I just want him to respect my team.”

When Pages hit another home run in the next inning (and threw his bat again), Alvarez said nothing. “He did it, but they still lost,” Alvarez said. “Tomorrow is a new day. Let’s see what happens.”

What Mendoza hopes will happen: no more of it.

“It just happened in the heat of the moment,” he said. “The last thing you want to do is try to create something unnecessary on the field.

“They compete. We know that everything is a matter of life and death. And they are competitors. And sometimes players show their emotions.”

Additional bases

The Mets held a full team practice Saturday at Dodger Stadium, the most-attended recreational activity of their postseason. “Everyone wanted to be here,” Mendoza said. “I just felt like the guys felt like they had to show up today. There are also a lot of people in the training room.” . . . According to Mendoza, Jesse Winker will be in the Game 6 lineup at DH or in the outfield. Including the latter option opens the door to DH for Brandon Nimmo (plantar fasciitis).

Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Tim was born on Long Island and grew up in Connecticut. He previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the Northeast.