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Glavine back in familiar territory as Mets host Cardinals

FLUSHING, New York -- Unlike the beginning of their
National League Division Series, the New York Mets can call upon
an experienced starter.

A winner of 290 regular-season games, Tom Glavine will add to
his record for League Championship Series starts when the Mets
face the St. Louis Cardinals in Wednesday's series opener.

The 40-year-old Glavine, who has won a pair of Cy Young Awards
in his 19-year career, will make his 16th LCS start, which is
two more than former teammate Greg Maddux. The lefthander needs
to work 3 1/3 frames to surpass another former teammate, John
Smoltz, for most LCS innings.

Although he is just 5-9 with a lifetime 3.31 ERA in the
Championship Series, Glavine (1-0, 0.00 ERA) has 62 strikeouts
in this round of the postseason and needs five to move in front
of Maddux and Mike Mussina for third place all-time.

"All of the years I played in the postseason in Atlanta were too
awesome," Glavine said. "I can't sit here and say that any one
was any better than the other. ... I'm sure enjoying the
opportunity to experience this here in New York. That's
obviously why I came here."

After going 15-7 with a 3.82 ERA in the regular season, Glavine
yielded just four hits in six scoreless innings to lead the Mets
in Thursday's 4-1 triumph over the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game
Two of the NLDS.

With veteran starters Pedro Martinez and Orlando Hernandez
sidelined because of injuries, the Mets had to turn to John
Maine, who allowed one run and six hits in 4 1/3 innings of the
series opener with the Dodgers, leading to a three-game sweep.

"We have fun in the clubhouse and on the field, but when it's
time to play, we're very focused and intense," Mets manager
Willie Randolph said. "This is ... something that I've waited
for for a long time personally and to see these guys come
together the way they have has just been very rewarding for me."

In a series that saw the road team win the first three contests,
the Cardinals came through at home with a 6-2 victory in
Sunday's Game Four of their division series with the San Diego
Padres.

The win moved St. Louis into their third straight NLCS and sixth
in 11 seasons under manager Tony La Russa. The Cardinals lost
in six games to Houston last year after defeating the Astros in
seven games in 2004.

Acquired from the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim on July 5, Jeff
Weaver (1-0, 0.00) gets the ball for St. Louis following a
regular season where he finished 8-14 with a 5.76 ERA.

Weaver had some shaky outings in his first few games with the
Cardinals before pitching coach Dave Duncan told him to go back
to what made him successful in the past. He settled down after
that and gave up just two hits in five scoreless innings of
Thursday's 2-0 victory in Game Two of the NLDS.

"When you come to a team that's built to win and you have that
opportunity to help that team succeed and get to the postseason,
you know, all of those things are motivation in itself to get
back to the guy that you know you are," Weaver said.

"These guys are men, not machines, so when they get out of whack
... it gets into their coconut and they start pressing and they
try stuff and it just drives you nuts," La Russa said. "He's
healthy and he's a competitor and every time he's out there,
he's had success."

Albert Pujols, who belted 49 homers and drove in 137 runs in the
regular season, is batting .450 (9-for-20) with three RBIs
against Glavine. However, he has never homered against the
lefthander.

New York won four of the six regular-season encounters against
St. Louis and beat the Cardinals in five games of the 2000 NLCS.

The teams will also square off here in Game Two on Thursday.

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