Glavine Puts Aside Playoff Failures

Tom Glavine’s postseason failures against San Francisco from last season stuck with him for months.

Changing teams didn’t even help -- but his result Sunday might.

Glavine took a shutout into the ninth inning and Jason Phillips homered a day after being recalled from the minors to replace the injured Mike Piazza as the New York Mets beat the Giants, 5-1.

Glavine (5-3) followed up on a strong eight-inning performance by Steve Trachsel on Saturday as the Mets beat the Giants for the second day in a row after losing their first 12 regular-season games at Pacific Bell Park.

Glavine gave up six hits, including a leadoff homer to Marquis Grissom in the ninth inning before giving way to Armando Benitez after Benito Santiago’s one-out single.

Glavine lost twice to San Francisco in last season’s playoffs, giving up 13 earned runs in 7 2/3 innings. But he was sharp this time, needing only 89 pitches to get through 8 1/3 innings.

“It wasn’t fun,” Glavine said. “You don’t get the opportunity to get redemption very often. That was on my mind a little bit. What happened in the playoffs left a bad taste in my mouth during the winter time.”

When he read the lineup card Sunday and saw that Barry Bonds was getting a day off, the left-hander knew his chances of winning this time had just gone up.

“You feel you catch a little break with Barry on the bench, but you can’t relax too much,” Glavine said. “The other guys can beat you.”

The Giants have lost seven of nine after being held to two runs in the last two games against the Mets.

Phillips, brought up from triple-A Norfolk when Piazza went on the disabled list Saturday with a severe right groin strain, drove a 3-and-1 pitch from Kurt Ainsworth (3-4) just inside the left field foul pole for a 2-0 lead in the fourth inning. He also singled in the sixth.

Ainsworth retired 10 of the first 11 batters before giving up a two-out walk to Cliff Floyd in the fourth and Phillips’ first homer of the year.

Ainsworth gave up four hits in five innings, striking out five and walking three. He is 0-4 in his last six starts and hasn’t won since April 15 against Houston.