Glavine exceptional as Mets grab control of series

	Tom Glavine allowed four hits in six innings of work Thursday to improve to 13-15 in the postseason with a 3.34 ERA. Jim McIsaac/Getty Images
	RELATED • Glavine, Mets take 2-0 lead over Dodgers

NEW YORK -- Four years after leaving playoff perennial Atlanta for the bedraggled New York Mets, Tom Glavine got his chance to pitch in the postseason again. On a cool night in front of a hot Shea Stadium crowd, he didn't squander it. Six weeks after a blood clot seemingly imperiled his season, or more, he tantalized the Los Angeles Dodgers, topping his fastball out around 88 mph, nibbling with a changeup that is slower than most of you drive on the interstate, changing speeds as if he were changing lanes and working the entire plate like a glutton. He doesn't fool anyone, because Glavine has pitched precisely the same way since the days when the Tomahawk Chop was fashionable, but that doesn't mean hitting him is any easier.

The 290-win left-hander was exceptional in the 4-1 Game 2 victory, shutting out the Dodgers on four hits through six innings before yielding to the best bullpen in the National League. Of the 18 outs Glavine recorded, 11 came on ground balls, another two on strikeouts. "He threw almost every pitch where he wanted to," catcher Paul Lo Duca said. "He was throwing his changeup to both sides of the plate." Vintage.

For Glavine, who was cuffed around like a delinquent truant in his last two playoff starts for Atlanta in 2002, once again became "Big Game Tommy," as manager Willie Randolph called him in the postgame interview room. Glavine admitted to being nervous during the day, including during his ride to the stadium with closer Billy Wagner, but an eerie calm enveloped him once he reached the clubhouse. He was all but perfect; Lo Duca recalls a high changeup to Jeff Kent as the only pitch that Glavine threw that wasn't precisely where he intended. "That," Glavine said, "was probably as relaxed as I've been all year."

Turning Point

In a mere two years, when Julio Franco turns 50, he might want to give up this baseball thing and turn his attention to masters track. The guy can motor, at least for someone who is nearing AARP territory. Just as it appeared reliever Mark Hendrickson would Houdini the Dodgers out of a no-out, bases-loaded jam in the sixth inning, Franco used his blinding -- OK, ordinary -- speed to leg out an apparent double-play ball and knock in a run on the fielder's choice, upping the New York lead to 3-0. Jose Reyes followed with a run-scoring single, extending the lead into the Mets' comfort zone. Instead of being buoyed by a magnificent escape, albeit two runs down, Los Angeles' inability to turn the double play and Franco's hustle (he grounded into 11 double plays in 165 at-bats) combined to rob the Dodgers of an emotional lift, if nothing else.

From the Bench

With starter Hong-Chih Kuo beginning to labor in the fifth inning, Dodgers manager Grady Little ordered the pitcher to intentionally walk Reyes with first base open and one out, loading the bases. He brought in Brett Tomko, a career starter turned reliever this season, to pitch to Lo Duca, a double-play candidate. The next time he needs a double play, Tomko might want to keep his pitches down. He started Lo Duca with a fastball up, a pitch that the catcher redirected to medium-deep left field, a sacrifice fly that accounted for the Mets' second run.... Randolph juggled his lineup, inserting Endy Chavez in right field for Shawn Green. The result: two hits, a run scored. "He's a quality player," Randolph said, "who plays good [defense] and gets us going [offensively]."

Clubhouse Confidential

Sometimes you hit the ball 470 feet and score a run -- like Carlos Delgado did with his Game 1 moon shot -- and sometimes three guys hit it maybe 145 feet and you get the same result. The little-ball Mets scored their first run on a drag bunt by Chavez that travelled about 60 feet, a wild pitch that streaked by Glavine, who was attempting to sacrifice with two strikes, a sac bunt by Glavine that traveled maybe five feet, and then a roller to short by Reyes that shortstop Rafael Furcal fielded before it reached the dirt portion of the infield.... Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti had to walk through the Shea Stadium crowd to get to the clubhouse but was unrecognized, just another fiftysomething guy in a brown leather jacket and cowboy boots. Given the result and the New Yorkers' temperament, it was probably just as well no one had the faintest idea who he was.

Looking Ahead

With Nomar Garciaparra having aggravated his quadriceps injury while running to first base, the Dodgers might be missing their best clutch hitter. If anyone else goes down from this still formidable although now sleepwalking lineup, which has one run against the Mets' starters, it might be from sheer boredom when the Dodgers face Steve Trachsel on Saturday. The glacial right-hander is the baseball equivalent of the four-corners offense. Los Angeles will certainly have to tighten its defense -- an error and the blown double play -- behind Greg Maddux, the ultimate ground-ball pitcher. "Greg will have as good a plan as anyone can have," Little said. "Now he'll execute it and we'll see what happens."