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20/20 Glavine wins 20th game with 20th career shutout
MONTREAL (AP) -- Tom Glavine knows he's in the right place to win games. Glavine reached 20 wins for the fifth time in his career, pitching his 20th career shutout Monday to lead the Atlanta Braves over the Montreal Expos 6-0. Glavine (20-9) allowed eight hits in his second shutout of the season, striking out three and walking none. He joined Toronto's David Wells as the only 20-game winners in the major leagues. "It's awfully hard to win 20 games on a team that's not good, that's not winning many games," Glavine said. "As a pitcher, trying to pitch a good ballgame and give your offense a chance to win games ... if you can do that, you're going to win a lot of games." Glavine got his 19th victory Sept. 5 against Arizona, then lost to the Expos, Diamondbacks and Mets. He also won 20 games in 1991, 1992, 1993 and 1998. "I want to be consistent," Glavine said. "I want my manager to be able to know what he's going to get out of me before the year starts, and the only way you can do that is to have year after year where you go out and do these things. "I'm not saying that I'm going to be a 20-game winner every year but to be able to do it five times shows some consistency and it's something that I'm proud of." Atlanta, which has already clinched a playoff berth, increased its NL East lead to four games over second-place New York and lowered its magic number to three for clinching its ninth consecutive division title. The Braves and Mets are scheduled to start a three-game series Tuesday in New York.
Javier Vazquez (11-8), who has won his previous three decisions, allowed four runs -- three earned -- and nine hits in eight innings. He struck out five of his first seven batters and finished with 10, walking two. "With a pitching staff like that, those guys can shut out any team, any day," Vazquez said. "And they have great hitting, too. They have a very good chance of winning the World Series." Just 6,931 attended the final game of the season at Olympic Stadium, where Montreal went 37-44. The Expos drew 926,263, their third straight season under 1 million. Andruw Jones put Atlanta ahead in the first inning with his 34th homer. "I just went out there trying to get a hit and (Vazquez) threw me a pitch where I could hit it out, and I had a good swing on it," Jones said. "He was pitching good and Glavine was pitching outstanding." Montreal's Vladimir Guerrero was caught stealing home in the fourth when Orlando Cabrera failed to make contact on a one-out squeeze attempt. Cabrera then singled. Atlanta made it 2-0 in the sixth when Chipper Jones and Andres Galarraga singled and third baseman Mike Mordecai misplayed Reggie Sanders' two-out grounder for an error, one of two he made in the game. Keith Lockhart added a two-run single in the eighth, and Javy Lopez and Brian Jordan singled in runs in the ninth off Guillermo Mota. Notes: Glavine has pitched 49 career complete games, four this season. ... Atlanta rookie Rafael Furcal was hit on the left elbow in the third and was attended to by the Braves' training staff before going on to first.
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