BASEBALL / ROSS NEWHAN : Angry Glavine Strikes Back at Batters and Critics

ATLANTA — Tom Glavine pitches with his mind as much as his arm. The fastball in, the curve down, the changeup away. Guile is his game, but Glavine used a different delivery after pitching the Atlanta Braves to a 3-1 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 1 of the World Series Saturday night.

Glavine was coming on straight and hard, aggravated about insinuations--by reporters and others--that he couldn’t stand up to postseason pressure, that he was still handicapped by the cracked rib of September.

He had become the butt of more punch lines than the Pittsburgh Pirates landed against him in the second inning of Game 6 of the National League playoff on Tuesday, scoring eight runs on their way to a 13-4 victory.

“To sit here the last three days and read how terrible I’ve been in the postseason is very aggravating,” the 26-year-old left-hander said.

“If I hadn’t won 20 games (during the regular season) and the other guys hadn’t done what they did, we wouldn’t be here, but it’s as if people threw out the regular season.

“All they care about is, ‘What have you done lately?’ Did it motivate me? Definitely, but I never doubted myself. It can get tiresome reading about how bad you are, but the only questions I answered tonight were those of other people. I mean, I’ve dealt with failure and adversity before, and there was no question in my mind I’d come back from it.”

And how. Glavine pitched his first complete game since July 3. He won for the first time since Sept. 9 and only the second time in his last 10 starts. He gave up only four hits, struck out six and walked none in throwing 81 strikes and only 45 balls.

Toronto was 28-21 against left-handers during the regular season, batting an intimidating .270 as a team, but it scored against Glavine only on Joe Carter’s home run during the fourth.

The Braves shattered the World Series invincibility of Jack Morris on the night Glavine demonstrated how he went 20-8 this year and 20-11 last year, presenting reassuring evidence that he is prepared to make three starts if the Series is extended to seven games and he avoids stiffness.

Glavine dismissed the notion that he couldn’t stand up to postseason pressure, improving to 2-5 after giving up 10 earned runs and 13 hits in the 7 1/3 innings of two losses to the Pirates.

“I’m the first to admit that I pitched lousy,” Glavine said of his brief Tuesday start, “but my stuff in Game 3 was as good as I had all year. I made two mistakes and lost, 3-2.

“I made a mistake to Carter tonight, but one run generally isn’t going to beat you. I wanted to make sure I held it at that, and no one was happier when Damon (Berryhill) hit the (three-run) homer.

“The last thing I wanted to do was lose another close game and hear people say I can’t win in the postseason.”

What Cito Gaston, the Toronto manager, said was that Glavine did a fine job of keeping his pitches on the outside part of the plate, but added that “he’s the type guy you’ve got to see once. I think we should do better the next time.”

Gaston suggested that Glavine got all the best of it from National League umpire Jerry Crawford behind the plate.

Glavine, the specialist in mind games, smiled and said, “If that’s what they want to complain about . . . it’s to our advantage.”

Said pitching coach Leo Mazzone: “The way he was throwing tonight, it doesn’t matter if a team has seen him once or 10 times.

“As I’ve said repeatedly over the last few weeks, there is nothing wrong with Tom Glavine. He won 20 games this year, he won 20 last year. If I have to worry about Tom Glavine, I better worry about everybody.”

Mazzone might not have been worried, but he sat Glavine down after that shelling by the Pirates and told him not to forget that he is a 20-game winner, one of the best pitchers in baseball.

“I think he’s been trying to force it, but I told him to relax, let it flow,” Mazzone said. “Who the hell doesn’t have to be reassured once in a while?”

Glavine said he let it flow against the Blue Jays, that his goal was to retake the inside part of the plate with his fastball and use his changeup on the outer half. The difference, he said, from Tuesday night to Saturday night was strictly location.

“As I’ve said before, I’d much rather have better location than better stuff,” he said, adding that those who keep insisting that his rib remains a problem (he won one of his last five regular-season starts) should believe otherwise now.

Glavine changed a lot of opinions Saturday night. One he didn’t have to was his own.