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One day late, Game One of NLCS to be played Thursday

Oct 12, 2006 - 12:52 PM St. Louis at NY Mets 8:19 pm EDT National League Championship Series Game One

FLUSHING, New York (Ticker) - A day later than expected, Tom Glavine will get the ball Thursday for the New York Mets in Game One of the National League Championship Series against the St. Louis Cardinals.

The contest was postponed because of rain on Wednesday night.

The 40-year-old Glavine, who has won 290 regular-season games and a pair of Cy Young Awards in his 19-year career, will make his record 16th LCS start, two more than the mark of former Atlanta Braves teammate Greg Maddux. The lefthander needs to work 3 1/3 frames to surpass another former teammate, John Smoltz, for most LCS innings.

Although he is just 5-9 with a lifetime 3.31 ERA in the Championship Series, Glavine (1-0, 0.00 ERA) has 62 strikeouts in this round of the postseason and needs five to move in front of Maddux and Mike Mussina for third place all-time.

"All of the years I played in the postseason in Atlanta were too awesome," Glavine said. "I can't sit here and say that any one was any better than the other. ... I'm sure enjoying the opportunity to experience this here in New York. That's obviously why I came here."

After going 15-7 with a 3.82 ERA in the regular season, Glavine yielded just four hits in six scoreless innings to lead the Mets in Thursday's 4-1 triumph over the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game Two of the NLDS.

With veteran starters Pedro Martinez and Orlando Hernandez sidelined because of injuries, the Mets had to turn to John Maine, who allowed one run and six hits in 4 1/3 innings of the series opener with the Dodgers, leading to a three-game sweep.

"We have fun in the clubhouse and on the field, but when it's time to play, we're very focused and intense," Mets manager Willie Randolph said. "This is ... something that I've waited for for a long time personally and to see these guys come together the way they have has just been very rewarding for me."

In a series that saw the road team win the first three contests, the Cardinals came through at home with a 6-2 victory in Sunday's Game Four of their series with the San Diego Padres.

The win moved St. Louis into its third straight NLCS and sixth in 11 seasons under manager Tony La Russa. The Cardinals lost in six games to Houston last year after defeating the Astros in seven games in 2004.

Acquired from the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim on July 5, Jeff Weaver (1-0, 0.00) gets the ball for St. Louis following a regular season in which he finished 8-14 with a 5.76 ERA.

Weaver had some shaky outings in his first few games with the Cardinals before pitching coach Dave Duncan told him to go back to what made him successful in the past. He settled down after that and gave up just two hits in five scoreless innings of Thursday's 2-0 victory in Game Two of the NLDS.

"When you come to a team that's built to win and you have that opportunity to help that team succeed and get to the postseason, you know, all of those things are motivation in itself to get back to the guy that you know you are," Weaver said.

"These guys are men, not machines, so when they get out of whack ... it gets into their coconut and they start pressing and they try stuff and it just drives you nuts," La Russa said. "He's healthy and he's a competitor and every time he's out there, he's had success."

Albert Pujols, who belted 49 homers and drove in 137 runs in the regular season, is batting .450 (9-for-20) with three RBI against Glavine. However, he never has homered against the lefthander.

New York won four of the six regular-season encounters against St. Louis and beat the Cardinals in five games of the 2000 NLCS.

The teams also will square off here in Game Two on Friday, which would have been a travel day.