Glavine Has a Huge Edge in Experience

Hong-Chih Kuo speaks at a whisper, suggests his win against the Mets a month ago was at least in part “lucky,” and promises tonight, in Game 2 of the National League Division Series, to “go out there and do the best I can.”

The Taiwanese left-hander, as of today, has exactly twice as many Tommy John surgeries (two) as big league victories, and 289 fewer regular-season victories than the opposing pitcher, Mets left-hander Tom Glavine.

Glavine, 10 wins from 300, has his own frailties.

He last pitched in the postseason in 2002, making two starts for the Braves against the Giants in the NL Division Series. He lost twice, gave up 13 earned runs in 7 2/3 innings (15.26 ERA) and the Braves lost in four games. Current Dodgers Kenny Lofton and Jeff Kent started for the Giants in both games.

Glavine, 40, has made 32 playoff starts overall, however, and is 12-15 with a 3.58 ERA in them.

Kuo, 25, became a full-time starter a few months ago.

Making a postseason start at Shea Stadium with one career win behind him, Glavine said, would have been daunting.

“It would have been nerve-racking, to say the least,” he said. “I mean, everybody’s different. I don’t know his makeup. I don’t know his personality or anything like that.

“I’d like to believe that mentally I could have handled it. But I look at it more from a standpoint of where I was as a pitcher, and it’s hard to imagine [289 wins] ago that I would have been the kind of pitcher that could have physically gone out there and pitched a good game.”

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The Mets have 12 pitchers on their postseason roster, one more than they carried in the regular season. Manager Willie Randolph spent the surplus immediately, matching up with two on in the fifth inning with left-hander Pedro Feliciano against Kenny Lofton and right-hander Chad Bradford against Nomar Garciaparra. ... In the absence of Orlando Hernandez, Randolph said Steve Trachsel would start Game 3 and Oliver Perez would start Game 4, if necessary.

tim.brown@latimes.com