Glavine dominates Dodgers

After his long wait, left-hander helps put Mets ahead 2-0

Jack Etkin, Rocky Mountain News

Friday, October 6, 2006

Box score

NEW YORK - It took four seasons with the New York Mets, considerably longer than Tom Glavine wanted or expected, before he finally took the mound again in the postseason.

Glavine, who has won 290 regular-season games, has made 33 starts in the postseason. His latest was vintage, or as vintage as it gets for a 40-year-old.

In a 4-1 win Thursday that pushed the Dodgers to the brink of the offseason, Glavine allowed four hits in six scoreless innings. He held the Dodgers hitless for 4 1/3 innings as the Mets took a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five division series that resumes Saturday in Los Angeles. The Mets won a National League-best 47 games on the road this season.

As Mets manager Willie Randolph passed Glavine after the game, he referred to him as "big-game Tommy."

Indeed, Glavine left the Atlanta Braves as a free agent after the 2002 season to be on this stage in New York in October.

"That means a lot to me," Glavine said of Randolph's compliment. "It's a lot less about what I have or haven't done in my career in the postseason and much more about now. This is the opportunity that I wanted to have here in New York."

The Mets scratched out a run in the third against starter Hong-Chih Kuo and used two productive outs - a sacrifice and sacrifice fly - to score another in the fifth against him before scoring two unearned runs in the sixth, aided by pitcher Brett Tomko's throwing error.

Glavine was well into his cool-down mode after throwing 94 pitches, including 60 strikes, when the Dodgers averted a shutout as Wilson Betemit homered to center field in the eighth off Aaron Heilman.

Mets closer Billy Wagner retired the side in order in the ninth to earn his second save in two days and preserve Glavine's first victory in the postseason since 2001.

Wagner and Glavine rode in together to Shea Stadium from their homes in Connecticut. Glavine said he did most of the talking, which was unusual.

"Normally, I'm the blabbermouth," Wagner said, adding he was glad to see Glavine seemed slightly edgy hours before he was to take the mound.

"It made me feel good because I didn't feel I'm the only person ready to puke," Wagner said.

Glavine, however, said "for some reason" when he arrived in the clubhouse, "everything fell in place, and I was very relaxed from that point on."

And once Glavine took the mound and began to dazzle the Dodgers, Wagner, 35, was virtually in awe.

"It took me back to when I watched him growing up," Wagner said.

In his last postseason appearance in 2002, Glavine went 0-2 with a 15.26 ERA in two starts for Atlanta, an October stumble that seemed long ago and far away after this outing.

Greg Maddux, a four-time Cy Young Award winner and Glavine's former Atlanta teammate, will try to keep the Dodgers' season alive Saturday when he starts for Los Angeles against Steve Trachsel.

"I think that goes without saying that we're confident with our pitcher on the mound Saturday," Dodgers manager Grady Little said. "And we're very confident we're a much better offensive club than we've shown these last two days."

Their baserunning blunder Wednesday notwithstanding, the Dodgers scored six runs in two losses in no small part because Rafael Furcal and Kenny Lofton, their first and second batters, went a combined 1-for-15.

A bunt single by Endy Chavez opened the third, when the Mets used a wild pitch, a tapper by Glavine that moved Chavez to third and a groundout to score against Kuo, who has one win in the big leagues and worked 4 1/3 innings in his sixth major league start.

A sacrifice fly by Paul Lo Duca brought home a run in the fifth and the Mets tacked on two unearned runs in the sixth, the first scoring when pinch hitter Julio Franco, running as fast as his 48-year-old legs would allow, just beat second baseman Julio Lugo's throw to avoid an inning-double play.

"He tends to have a little bit extra every once in a while," Randolph said of Franco. "I was like, 'Oh, geez, get down there quick.' "

Jose Reyes followed with a run-scoring single that gave the Mets relievers a four-run cushion to start the seventh.

Glavine didn't allow a hit until the fourth when Nomar Garciaparra and Jeff Kent singled with one out.

Garciaparra reaggravated his strained right quadriceps running to first base, an injury that bothered him in the final weeks of the regular season, and didn't take the field in the sixth.

Glavine then struck out J.D. Drew and got Russell Martin to fly out to end the fourth.

The Dodgers took another unsuccessful shot at Glavine in the fifth, when Lofton broke his bat and grounded out to strand runners at first and third.

"I'm well aware of what my last postseason was like and it certainly wasn't something that I'm proud of or happy about," Glavine said. "But it happened, and there's not a lot I can do about it, obviously. I just was in a position where I, obviously, wanted to try to get back to the postseason again and try and do better and have more fun and have a better experience."

a-grounded into fielder's choice for Glavine in the 6th. b-struck out for Hendrickson in the 7th. E - Tomko (1). LOB - Los Angeles 7, New York 7. 2B - JLugo (1), Lo Duca (1). HR - Betemit (1), off Heilman. RBI - Betemit (1), JBReyes 2 (2), Lo Duca (1), JuFranco (1). S - Valentin, TGlavine. SF - Lo Duca. Runners left in scoring position - Los Angeles 2 (Lofton, Martin); New York 4 (Lo Duca, Beltran, CDelgado 2). Runners moved up - Kuo, JBReyes, TGlavine.

Number of pitches - Los Angeles, Kuo 85, Tomko 22, Hendrickson 11, Billingsley 13, Saito 17. New York, TGlavine 94, Feliciano 22, Heilman 20, BWagner 16. Tomko pitched to 3 batters in the 6th. Inherited runners-scored - Tomko 3-1, Hendrickson 3-2. IBB - off Kuo (JBReyes) 1. WP - Kuo. Umpires - Home, Ted Barrett; First, Eric Cooper; Second, Ron Kulpa; Third, Mike Winters; Left, Brian O'Nora; Right, John Hirschbeck. T - 2:57. A - 57,029 (57,333).

etkinj@RockyMountainNews.com