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Glavine shuts down Mets, Braves take opener

May 20, 2008 - 9:33 PM By Phil Foley PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

ATLANTA (Ticker) -- After a shaky start, a vintage Tom Glavine easily dispatched of the New York Mets.

Glavine allowed one run and three hits over six frames, leading the Atlanta Braves to a 6-1 victory over the Mets in the first game of a day-night doubleheader on Tuesday.

Beating the Mets is nothing new to Glavine (2-1), who tormented New York club in his first 16 seasons with Atlanta before joining the club in 2003.

"I guess it's a little bit of a bigger deal than beating anyone else," Glavine said. "Any time you beat your former team, it has a different feel to it."

Going against his old club for the first time since returning to the Braves, Glavine survived a troublesome first inning before dominating the final five frames.

The 42-year-old lefthander retired the last 17 batters he faced after loading the bases in the first. The southpaw needed just six pitches to complete the third and threw only nine pitches in his final frame.

"That's the beauty of the game," Glavine said. "My (bullpen session) was probably the worst I had all year and I had as a bad a first inning that I could have had. I would never in my wildest dreams thought 17 up, 17 down after that."

Glavine walked one and struck out four en route to improving to 17-7 with a 2.82 ERA in 36 starts against Atlanta's archrivals.

"I pitched well against the Mets for some reason," said Glavine, who conversely was a miserable 4-11 with a 5.15 ERA against the Braves. "For five years after I left (Atlanta), I obviously didn't pitch well against the Braves."

It looked like New York was going to pile it on against their former teammate in the first when Luis Castillo, who is not known for his power, greeted Glavine with a one-out homer into the left-center field bleachers. It was the Mets second baseman's first home run since August 18, 2007.

The Mets then loaded the bases on a single by David Wright, a walk to Carlos Beltran and a hit by Ryan Church. But Glavine, who is best remembered by Mets fans for allowing seven runs in one-third of an inning to accentuate the club's historic collapse last season, did not wilt in this one.

"It's frustrating when he's hitting his spots and is going black-to-black and up-and-down," Wright said. "It's his control. He's the best I've ever seen. He doesn't locate in the middle of the plate."

A two-time Cy Young Award winner, Glavine induced Moises Alou to line out before retiring Carlos Delgado - who entered Tuesday batting .588 (10-for-17) against the lefthander - to end the frame.

"He'll bend, but not break," Braves manager Bobby Cox said. "He's done that his whole career. He can still make pitches and still break bats. He was perfect after the first inning."

However, Glavine, who tied Eddie Plank for 20th place on the all-time wins list with 305, thought that his escape had to do more with luck than execution.

"They could have easily scored five runs," Glavine said. "Moises hit the ball hard at Chipper (Jones). With Delgado, (Jeff Francoeur) did a great job of tracking down (the fly ball). Sometimes, you have to get lucky."

Cox elected to pull Glavine, who was hampered slightly by a sore right knee, after the sixth. The Braves' bullpen set down five more batters to extend the Mets' futility to 22 straight outs before Jose Reyes connected with a two-out single in the eighth.

After three scoreless frames in this one, the Atlanta bullpen has not allowed a run in 19 consecutive innings.

Brian McCann homered and drove in three runs to lead Atlanta's offense. The Braves catcher broke a 1-1 tie with a run-scoring single in the third and capped the scoring by smacking a two-run homer off Mets reliever Aaron Heilman in the seventh.

John Maine (5-3) allowed four runs and eight hits in four-plus innings for the Mets. He walked three and struck out two, throwing 99 pitches.