WORLD SERIES / ATLANTA BRAVES vs. MINNESOTA TWINS : For Glavine, the Living End : Braves: Pitcher goes out on top, though his control deserts him in the Twins’ three-run sixth inning.

He might have wanted the night to last forever, for the ovation from the sellout crowd of 50,878 to wash over him endlessly, but Tom Glavine’s heart was full when his splendid season came to a close Thursday.

The Atlanta left-hander had too much to be grateful for--a 20-victory season and a strong chance to win the Cy Young Award--and too much to look forward to for him to regret that he won’t start again this season.

“I can’t be sad because we’ve still got work to do,” Glavine said. “Personal goals, that’s all nice, but when the season ended those all went out the window. We haven’t finished our work yet. That’s what I’m thinking about--not that this was my last start, but that the ultimate goal is ours to achieve.”

Glavine helped the Braves move one step closer to that goal Thursday. Although he didn’t pitch nearly as well as in his second playoff outing or his first World Series start against the Twins, he won this time, and that is all that mattered to the 25-year-old left-hander after Atlanta’s 14-5 trouncing of the Twins at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.

“It’s gratifying more than anything else. Now I don’t have to sit there and stare at the stat sheet and see 0-4,” said Glavine, who lost the Braves’ first and fifth playoff games against the Pirates and gave up only one earned run to the Twins Sunday in a 3-2 loss at the Metrodome.

“There were two games I could have won, but nobody’s going to remember that. Nobody’s going to ask six months from now what the score was tonight, just like they’re not going to ask what the score was in the games I lost.”

He would have preferred to finish his season with a flourish, but he settled for leaving with a lead after his control deserted him in the sixth inning and led him to throw 16 of 20 pitches out of the strike zone.

While his teammates pounded Kevin Tapani and Terry Leach and built a 5-0 lead, Glavine did his part by limiting the Twins to three hits over 5 1/3 innings. He seemed to be cruising when he started the sixth by retiring Dan Gladden on a fly to center, but Glavine walked Chuck Knoblauch on four pitches, gave up a single to Kirby Puckett and loaded the bases by issuing a full-count walk to Chili Davis.

Despite visits to the mound by catcher Greg Olson and third baseman Terry Pendleton, Glavine couldn’t find his rhythm. He walked Brian Harper on five pitches and Scott Leius on four to force in two runs, bringing an end to his evening.

“I finally got some runs and I didn’t know what the heck to do with them,” joked Glavine, who got 17 runs in his 11 losses this season and got no runs in his second playoff start against the Pirates. “It was great to see us score so many runs but disappointing to give a few back. . . .

“I don’t think it was fatigue. I felt great physically,” he said of the sixth inning. “I kept telling myself, ‘Don’t walk guys. Don’t get behind in the counts.’ I guess I put negative thoughts into my head.”

And putting fastballs well above the strike zone.

“I wasn’t following through quite as well as I (had been), and I was missing up and away,” Glavine said. “I’m usually able to make an adjustment when something like that happens, but I couldn’t tonight for some reason. I felt (as) good about what I was doing the first five innings as I have all year, but I got a little out of rhythm and couldn’t get back.”

He appreciated the irony of winning after he had pitched “so-so,” in his own estimation, and having lost after pitching well in his previous postseason appearances.

“It shows how crazy this game is,” said Glavine, whose 20 regular-season victories tied him with Pittsburgh’s John Smiley for the NL lead. “There are no guarantees. The numbers tonight weren’t pretty, and this game wasn’t as pretty as my last two, but the bottom line is we won a game we wanted to win. We’re going to go up there (to Minnesota) and feel a lot more comfortable than we did before. Having to go up there and win one game is a heck of a lot easier than having to win two.”

But if they do lose on Saturday and have to win a seventh game to win the Series, Glavine will be ready to go out there in relief.

“If I rebound well from this I would definitely be available,” said Glavine, who threw a modest 83 pitches Thursday. “But hopefully, we’ll win Game 6 so I don’t have to worry. Or John Smoltz will pitch well enough that they don’t need me. . . . We have the upper hand now and it’s a matter of taking advantage of it.”