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Glavine dazzles, leads Mets to sweep of Braves

Sep 2, 2007 - 9:28 PM By Phil Foley PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

ATLANTA (Ticker) -- The sixth time was the charm for New York Mets starter Tom Glavine.

Glavine pitched into the seventh inning to outduel former teammate John Smoltz for the first time in six tries, leading the Mets to a 3-2 win over the Atlanta Braves on Sunday and a sweep of the three-game set.

Pitching in Atlanta for the first time since he recorded his 300th career victory on August 5, Glavine (12-6) was brilliant.

The lefthander allowed one run and five hits, walked three and struck out two in six-plus innings to win a Glavine-Smoltz matchup for the first time.

"Finally," Glavine said. "It was awhile."

But it didn't look like Glavine would dazzle in the first.

Yunel Escobar and Matt Diaz led off the frame with consecutive singles before Glavine retired Chipper Jones. Mark Teixeira then drew a walk to load the bases.

The Braves, who failed to score more than one run on bases-loaded situations with one out in the previous two games, faltered once again.

Jeff Francoeur drove in Atlanta's first run with a groundout before Glavine walked Andruw Jones to load the bases once again.

But the two-time Cy Young Award winner induced Atlanta native Brian McCann, who was 3 years old when Glavine made his major league debut in 1987, to ground out meekly to first base to end the threat.

"We had the bases loaded in the first off Tommy," Braves manager Bobby Cox said. "We could have had the game up locked there, but we couldn't do it."

"He pitched real well," Smoltz said. "He got out of the only real trouble he was in all night."

From there the crafty lefthander cruised, retiring the next 11 batters before issuing a walk and a hit in the fifth. Glavine left to a partial standing ovation from the normally hostile Turner Field crowd after issuing a single to Teixeira to start the seventh.

"It was nice," Glavine said of the ovation. "It was much better than the reaction when I walked off the mound (to boos) the first couple of years or the sarcastic cheers I had because I had a bad game. Anytime you walk off the field in the other team's ballpark, it's something I'm very proud of and always appreciative of."

Former Brave Jorge Sosa retired all three batters he faced in the seventh and Aaron Heilman worked around a leadoff walk in the eighth before closer Billy Wagner ran into trouble again in the ninth.

McCann led off the ninth with a double - Atlanta's first extra-base hit of the series. Kelly Johnson singled home pinch runner Chris Woodward to pull the Braves within 3-2.

Wagner, who blew his last two save opportunities, bounced back and induced three straight groundouts to close out the game and record his 30th save.

Prior to this one, the 41-year-old Glavine has faced off against his longtime teammate and good friend Smoltz (12-7) five times. Glavine was 0-2 with a 2.96 ERA in the matchup of two future Hall of Famers, while Smoltz was 3-0 with a 3.16 ERA. The Mets dropped all five games.

This time it was Smoltz's turn to lose. The veteran righthander pitched well for Atlanta, allowing three runs and nine hits with two walks and seven strikeouts in seven solid frames, but was once again victimized by poor run support.

"I felt really good," Smoltz said. "Unfortunately, I haven't won a game when I've given up three (earned) runs. That's the way it's been."

Meanwhile, Glavine and slugger David Wright provided just enough offense to hand Smoltz his first loss against the Mets this season.

The Mets loaded the bases with one out in the second on singles by Moises Alou, Shawn Green and Paul Lo Duca to bring up Glavine.

The veteran lofted a long sacrifice fly into the left-center field gap, plating Alou to knot the game at 1-1.

"I was looking for a fastball and had a chance to get it, and I did," Glavine said. "Probably the only center fielder (Andruw Jones) that could get to it tracked it down."

Wright broke the tie and helped complete the three-game sweep by smashing his 25th homer into the left-center field bleachers in the fifth to give New York a 3-1 edge.

The Mets couldn't pick a better time to sweep the reeling Braves.

New York (76-60), which limped into Atlanta after an embarrassing four-game sweep by the second-place Philadelphia Phillies to cut their lead to just two games in the National League East Division, increased their cushion to four games.

"It's an unbelievable game, it really is," Lo Duca said. "To play the way we did in Philadelphia, we didn't get any breaks. We come here and got a lot of breaks. We just got the breaks here and took advantage of them."

New York also dealt a potentially fatal blow to Atlanta's chances of making a bid for their 15th division crown since 1991. The Braves (69-68), who fell 7 1/2 games behind the Mets in the NL East, were also 6 1/2 games off the pace for the NL wild card entering Sunday.

"We've got to go 19-6 (down the stretch)," Smoltz said. "We have to win a game and go from there. You can't keep up with this pace. This is as shocking as anything. We had one extra-base hit and it was in the ninth inning. They came in here and we had matchups we liked. But it didn't mean anything. We were 0-3."

Chipper Jones snapped an 0-for-14 slide with a single in the eighth for the free-falling Braves, who have lost 12 of their last 17 games.