At Last, Glavine Gets 20th Victory

Tom Glavine reached 20 wins for the fifth time in his career, pitching his 20th career shutout Monday to lead the Atlanta Braves over the Montreal Expos, 6-0, at Montreal.

Glavine (20-9) allowed eight hits in his second shutout of the season, striking out three and walking none. He joined Toronto’s David Wells as the only 20-game winners in the major leagues.

Glavine got his 19th victory Sept. 5 against Arizona, then lost to the Expos, Diamondbacks and Mets. He also won 20 games in 1991, 1992, 1993 and 1998.

“I want to be consistent,” Glavine said. “I want my manager to be able to know what he’s going to get out of me before the year starts, and the only way you can do that is to have year after year where you go out and do these things.

“I’m not saying that I’m going to be a 20-game winner every year but to be able to do it five times shows some consistency and it’s something that I’m proud of.”

Andruw Jones’ 34th home run in the first inning gave Glavine the only run he needed.

Atlanta, which has already clinched a playoff berth, increased its NL East lead to four games over the second-place Mets and lowered its magic number to three for clinching its ninth consecutive division title. The Braves who start a three-game series today against the Mets in New York.

Only 6,931 attended the Expos’ final game of the season at Olympic StadiumThe Expos drew 926,263, their third consecutive season under 1 million.

Arizona 6, Colorado 4--The Diamondbacks overcame a shaky outing by Randy Johnson at Denver to keep their slim wild-card hopes alive.

Johnson (19-6) was the winning pitcher, but allowed four runs and 10 hits in 7 2/3 innings. He struck out eight to raise his season total to 342 in 245 1/3 innings.

Chicago 4, Philadelphia 3--Ruben Quevedo (3-9) ended his losing streak at four games as Mark Grace had a tie-breaking RBI double for the Cubs at Chicago. Grace recorded his 1,001st career run batted in.

The Cubs won for only the fifth time in 24 games, while the Phillies lost for the seventh time in eight games.

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Big Winners

Pitchers who have won 20 or more games in at least five seasons since 1950:

Warren Spahn: 11

Jim Palmer: 8

Ferguson Jenkins: 7

Steve Carlton: 6

Juan Marichal: 6

Robin Roberts: 6

Roger Clemens: 5

Bob Gibson: 5

Tom Glavine: 5

Catfish Hunter: 5

Bob Lemon: 5

Gaylord Perry: 5

Tom Seaver: 5

Early Wynn: 5

Note--Spahn and Lemon each had two 20-victory seasons before 1950, bringing their career totals to 13 and seven, respectively.