Mets hurler Glavine posts 300th major league win

CHICAGO: Tom Glavine became the 23rd pitcher in Major League Baseball history to win 300 games Sunday as his New York Mets defeated the Chicago Cubs 8-3.

Glavine used his trademark control and quality bat to become just the fifth lefthanded pitcher to reach the 300-win mark.

As he has done for most of his career, the 41-year-old pounded the strike zone all game long, yielding just two runs and six hits with a walk and a strikeout in front of his wife, father and mother, among other family members.

He left the mound to a mild standing ovation from the Wrigley Field crowd after allowing a one-out double to Angel Pagan in the seventh inning.

After Billy Wagner locked down the final out, Glavine walked onto the field and was given the ball by Wagner. Glavine tried to fight back a smile as he shook hands with his teammates and then hugged his family members in front of the Mets' dugout.

A career .187 hitter entering the contest, Glavine helped his own cause in his first at-bat in the top of the second as he plated Lastings Milledge for the first run of the game and a 1-0 lead.

Glavine's outing came on the heels of Tuesday's disappointment against the Milwaukee Brewers, where the bullpen could not make a run and two hits over six frames stand up.

For a short while after the 1995 World Series Most Valuable Player exited, recent history looked as if it might repeat itself and deny Glavine his 300th for the second consecutive game.

Relievers Guillermo Mota and Pedro Feliciano followed Glavine, who left with a 5-1 lead, and allowed an RBI groundout to Jacque Jones sandwiched around a single from Jason Kendall and a run-scoring double from Mike Fontenot to trim the Mets advantage to 5-3.

However Aaron Heilman forced Ryan Theriot to fly out to end the threat and the Mets responded with two runs of their own in the top of the eighth.

Prior to the game, Glavine said a win, with no extra fireworks, would be good enough.

"If you're going to write a Hollywood script, you (would) throw a complete game and have a no-hitter or one-hitter," he said. "But at the end of the day, I'll take it however I can get it.

"If you have your choice, you'd rather have it a well-pitched game you're proud of. But believe me, the next day or the rest of my life I'm not going to care how I got it."

The last pitcher to reach 300 was ex-Cub Greg Maddux, Glavine's former teammate in Atlanta. Next closest to 300 is Randy Johnson with 284, but he is 43 years old and out for the season with back surgery.

AFP

(China Daily 08/07/2007 page24)