On the Mets beat

BY DAVID LENNON

MILWAUKEE – The celebration last night was supposed to be for Tom Glavine. Instead, the Brewers crashed the party, and specifically Geoff Jenkins, whose two-run homer off Aaron Sele in the 13th inning dealt the Mets a 4-2 loss that made Glavine’s historic quest a foggy afterthought at Miller Park.

Jenkins delivered the decisive blow to end the four-hour, 20-minute marathon, and was swarmed by his jumping, thumping teammates once he crossed the plate. For Glavine, it was more sobering to see Bill Hall’s tying two-run double off Guillermo Mota in the eighth inning.

That evened the score at 2 and ruined Glavine’s chance at clinching career victory No. 300. He left the game in the seventh with the Mets ahead, 2-1, and exited the field to a standing ovation from the sellout crowd of 41,790. Glavine briefly tipped his cap before disappearing down the steps and watched the rest of the inning from the dugout bench.

Glavine allowed two hits and one run over six-plus innings, but had thrown 95 pitches when Damian Miller ended his night with a leadoff single in the seventh. That effort, along with running the bases in the top half, put Glavine at ease turning over the final three innings to the bullpen. Only Aaron Heilman made it through the seventh unscathed.

“I felt good about the way I pitched,” Glavine said. “Aaron as solid as he’s been, as solid as Pedro [Feliciano] has been, you watch it unfold and you go, ‘All right, this is the scenario you wanted.’ Tonight was one of those nights that it didn’t work out for us unfortunately.”

Now Glavine must wait until Sunday for his second try against the Cubs in a nationally televised 8 p.m. start at Wrigley Field. It was 17 years ago on July 31 that the Rangers’ Nolan Ryan beat the Brewers at Milwaukee’s County Stadium for career victory No. 300 and Glavine was poised to do the same.

Heilman escaped the seventh innings, thanks to a nifty 3-6-3 double play, but Glavine’s dream dissolved in the eighth. J.J. Hardy opened with a bloop single that Jose Ryes couldn’t chase down in shallow leftfield, and one out later, Feliciano drilled Prince Fielder on the right elbow. That’s when Randolph called on Mota, who immediately gave up Hall’s tying double.

“It’s frustrating,” Heilman said. “Things like that are going to happen. I just feel bad we weren’t able to hold the lead for Tom. He pitched a great game and he deserved to win. He’s been around the game long enough to understand things like this happen.”

Said Glavine: “I know they’re disappointed. They’ve helped me a lot more than they’ve hurt me.”

Glavine was trying to become the 23rd pitcher to win 300 games and the first since Greg Maddux, his former Braves teammate who accomplished the feat in 2004. He also will be only the fifth lefthander to reach the milestone and the first to do so in a Mets uniform. Ryan, Tom Seaver and Warren Spahn all did it after leaving the Mets.

How long was this game? It contained not one, but two sausage races. Not to mention a pair of game-saving diving catches by Lastings Milledge that ended the ninth and 12th innings. With a handful of Glavine’s dejected family members and friends still watching from their box seats, Tony Graffinino opened the 13th with a double off Sele and Jenkins hammered the walkoff blast.

The Mets survived a surprise relief appearance by Jorge Sosa in the ninth inning, thanks to a full-extension grab by Milledge with the bases loaded. Somehow, Sele also escaped the 11th after giving up a pair of singles to open the inning. He got bailed out with a nifty double play started by – you guessed it – the newly acquired Luis Castillo.

Sosa was scheduled to start tomorrow in the series finale against the Brewers, but Randolph revealed after last night’s loss that he already had been pulled from the rotation. With Paul Lo Duca’s sore hamstring improving, the Mets will likely send down Mike DiFelice and call up another pitcher for tomorrow. Two of the leading candidates are probably Philip Humber, who was scratched from yesterday’s start for Triple-A New Orleans, and Brian Lawrence.

It seemed like a bad omen for Glavine that his first try at 300 had to come on the road, which has not been a very friendly place for him this season. Glavine was 0-3 with an 11.96 ERA in his last five starts away from Shea and had not won on the road since May 8, when he allowed one run during seven innings in a 4-1 victory over the Giants at AT&T Park.

Before the game, however, Glavine appeared loose as he waited for his shot at history. He joked with teammates and even talked freely with reporters while sitting at his locker – something not usually done by starting pitchers.

“Now that I can try to focus on my next start, which will be my 300th win, I think it’s taken some pressure off,” Glavine said. “ Now the moment’s at hand, so it’s just a matter of going out there and executing a game plan. Not worry about how many more wins I need and how many more starts I have. It’s here, it’s now, and it’s easier to deal with.”