None of Glavine%26#8217;s closest friends on the Mets made the two-hour drive here for Thursday%26#8217;s game, making his reunion with the Mets sort of anticlimactic, but the gang can catch up with one another next weekend. The Mets play the Braves in Atlanta during their six-game season-opening trip, and Glavine is scheduled to pitch against them next Saturday. %26#8220;It will be different pitching against those guys, just like pitching against Atlanta was always different than any other team I pitched against when I was with New York,%26#8221; Glavine said before the Mets defeated the Braves, 9-4. %26#8220;Pitching against the Mets is going to be the same way.%26#8221; Glavine won his 300th career game with the Mets but came away from his five seasons disappointed that none of those teams reached a World Series. He chose to return to Atlanta to spend more time with his family, who continued to live in suburban Atlanta, 25 miles from Turner Field, where Glavine will pitch the Braves%26#8217; home opener Monday against the Pittsburgh Pirates in front of a crowd he expects will embrace him.He should get the same reaction from the Mets. %26#8220;Even though I was only there for five years, I made some good friends there,%26#8221; Glavine said. %26#8220;And those five years had a good impact on me as a person and on me as a player.%26#8220;The emotional ties that I had there are much greater, I think, than people give it credit for. Because of that, it%26#8217;s going to be different, but it%26#8217;s not going to be like that first time I faced the Braves after being here for 16 years and felt like everybody on the team and in the ballpark knew everything I was doing. It won%26#8217;t be that extreme, but it%26#8217;ll be close.%26#8221;INSIDE PITCHThe Mets placed second baseman Rub%26#233;n Gotay on waivers, reaffirming the notion that they intend to award the final bench spot to Fernando Tatis or, less likely, Brady Clark. If Gotay clears, he has 72 hours to accept a minor league assignment or, because he had been outrighted to the minors before, become a free agent. The Mets are hoping to retain him. %26#8220;I thought I did a good job last year that I didn%26#8217;t deserve this,%26#8221; said Gotay, who missed two and a half weeks of spring training with a sprained ankle. Gotay, acquired from Kansas City in July 2006, batted .295 in 190 at-bats last season. … Facing the Braves%26#8217; probable opening day lineup, Oliver P%26#233;rez was charged with three runs and seven hits in six and a third innings. He struck out four batters. P%26#233;rez put a scare into Manager Willie Randolph when he tripped after throwing out Josh Anderson in the sixth, but afterward P%26#233;rez said he just had the wind knocked out of him. … Randolph said he did not expect to determine the opening day roster until Saturday in Memphis. … Reliever Steven Register cleared waivers, and the Mets were trying to work out a deal with his former team, the Colorado Rockies, that would allow him to remain with the organization.
Tags: family, job, nock, scare
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