He is the new ace of the staff.  This is why the Mets signed Tom Glavine three years ago.  It took longer than he would have liked, actually it took longer than any Mets fan would have liked, but finally the Mets are back in the playoffs and Glavine is doing the things on the mound that fans could have only fantasized about.  Tom Glavine has now pitched 13 innings of shutout baseball.  He has picked up the starting pitching when everyone thought the injuries to Pedro and El-Duque would be insurmountable. 

The way Jeff Weaver was pitching last night, it gave the feeling that this could be a bad night for the Mets.  They only had 1 hit in the first five innings.  You felt that if the Cardinals could squeak out a run or two this game might be the Mets first post season loss.  However, Carlos Beltran took care of that.  After Paul Lo Duca singled to right field to start the sixth inning, Beltran rocketed one into the right field scoreboard just below the Mets lineup.  I mean he crushed it.  That ball was out of Shea faster than an Accela express train.

To get to that point in the game with the score deadlocked at zero required Glavine’s masterful pitching.  He was hitting his corners and really had the St. Louis batters befuddled.  Let’s not forget the Mets defense either.  A couple of fine double plays thwarted potential Cardinal rallies.  In the third, David Wright snared a line drive off the bat of David Eckstein then threw to second to double off Yadier Molina.  Then in the fourth Juan Encarnacion lined out to center. Beltran fired to first to double off Albert Pujols, inning over.  And of course Endy Chavez, who has certainly been one of the Mets MVP players this year made a tremendous diving catch after he came in the game to replace Cliff Floyd who hurt his Achilles tendon again (you know this is really a shame, if there was one person on the Mets who you want to see really enjoy this post season, it’s Floyd).

Winning game 1 was really crucial for the Mets.  Remember, once you get past Glavine, it’s a real crap shoot as far as the Mets rotation goes.  And with the rainout on Wednesday, Tony La Russa has moved Carpenter up to pitch in game 2.  John Maine has his work cut out for him tonight where he will try to match zeros with the Cardinals ace.  Realistically at least the Mets will head into St. Louis tomorrow no worse than 1-1.  But don’t assume the Mets will go down easy tonight.  They have battled hard the entire playoffs so far.  If Maine can keep the game close, the Mets will figure out a way to score some runs.

Of course the goal is to win the NLCS but a smaller more immediate goal is to win at least one, hopefully two, of the next four games.  Even just winning one game insures that the series has to be decided in New York where the Mets faithful can be very influential. 

Once again the bullpen shut the door, this time Guillermo Mota set up Billy Wagner.  Both relievers made it interesting though.  After getting two outs in the eighth, Mota threw 6 straight balls making everyone in the ballpark nervous.  Albert Pujols was on deck with Preston Wilson at bat.  If Wilson had got on base things could have gotten very dicey.  But with the count full Mota was able to get Wilson to pop up and end the threat.  Then it was Billy Wagner’s turn to get two quick outs and then put a man on.  If you think about it, things could have been ugly in the ninth.  First, Pujols leading off lined hard to first where Delgado made a nice catch.  Another foot to Delgado’s left and that could have been a double down the line.  The next batter, Juan Encarnacion, hit a hard ground ball up the middle to the right of second that was back handed by Valentine who then spun and fired low to first.  Delgado made a nice pick in the dirt and quickly there were two men down.  Scott Rolen walked on four pitches and that’s what drives me crazy.  It seems as soon as Wagner gets two outs, he tends to start over throwing and that’s when he gets wild, although his slider was just missing.  With Rolen on first Scott Spiezio, batting for Jim Edmonds, hit a flare to second that was caught by Valentin to end the game.  Wagner, although responsible for some mild heart burn, has been perfect in the post season.  He surrendered a home run in the first game of the NLDS which caused no harm.  Other than that Wagner has been absolutely fantastic.

So the Mets win game 1 meaning they now must win 3 of 6 to move on to the World Series.  They have won all of their post season games played so far.  In fact remember when we were all so worried at how lackadaisically the Mets were playing after they clinched the division?  Including the end of the season, the Mets have now won eight straight games.  They need seven more wins to get to were they want to be, a World Championship.

Extra Innings:  Game 2 is tonight.  You must have game 1 tickets to get in. 

Last night’s opener was the first time in Mets history they opened the NLCS at home.  All 6 previous League Championship Series involving the Mets were opened on the road.

Because of the rainout the Mets play 5 consecutive days without any days off.  After the game tonight they travel to St. Louis.  Saturday, Sunday, and Monday games are all at night.  The only day game the Mets are scheduled to play is next Wednesday afternoon at 4:00 if necessary.