Glavine Stretches Out Just Enough

Apr 02, 06:37 AM

Current Headlines: By David Lennon, Newsday, Melville, N.Y.

Apr. 2--ST. LOUIS -- As the workers at Busch Stadium prepared for last night's banner-raising ceremony, Tom Glavine walked restlessly through the clubhouse before plopping down on a clubhouse couch. All he wanted to do was watch a little TV. The only problem was that he couldn't get one to work.

After repeated tries to get rid of the static on two overhanging screens, Glavine thought better of standing on his toes and reaching that far above his head.

"I'd better stop," Glavine said, "before I blow out my arm before the game."

Good move. If the Mets are to do anything this season, they need Glavine. And for Glavine to reach his personal milestone of 300 wins, he could use a little help, too. In that sense, it was a good team effort last night in the Mets' 6-1 victory over the Cardinals in the season opener at Busch Stadium.

Glavine allowed six hits and one run in six innings before stepping aside for four relievers that helped him seal No. 291. It's impossible for Glavine to dodge questions about his pursuit of pitching immortality, but he did try to at least delay them for a night.

"Let's not go there yet," Glavine said. "It was nice for us to win and it's a good game for us. That's how I think we envision ourselves winning ballgames. We played great defense, got pretty good pitching and we made some pitches when we had to. I know I did."

Glavine got two double plays, both after leadoff singles. One erased David Eckstein's base hit in the first inning and the other wiped out Yadier Molina's in the fifth. That helped Glavine become the first opposing starter to win on Opening Day at Busch Stadium since the Giants' John Burkett in 1993.

Glavine also has won three straight Opening Day starts, all with the Mets, and improved to 5-3 with a 3.70 ERA in eight career starts overall.

Even after Carlos Beltran did him a big favor by gunning down Eckstein at the plate in the sixth inning, Glavine still had to escape a bases-loaded threat, and he did so by breaking Molina's bat for a soft pop-up to short.

"I'm not totally thrilled with it," Glavine said. "There were parts of it that I thought I can do better going into my next one. But the good part about it is when I had to make some pitches, I did. I was able to get some ground balls and get some double plays when I needed them. I was behind in the count a little more than I liked to be and didn't feel I was hitting it with my fastball as good as I wanted to, but the results were good, so we'll go with it."

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