The LoHud Mets Blog

There was the standard pitching meeting prior to every series, but nothing out of the ordinary for Mets manager Willie Randolph.

His team staggered into town losers of four of their last six games to play arguably the National League’s premier team, but there was no concern other than to figure a way to get out Albert Pujols.

When Pedro Martinez said the Mets were going through a test, he meant bouncing back from losing two series by playing the St. Louis Cardinals tough.

The Mets responded the way Randolph hoped, with Tom Glavine giving his team a chance to win and they taking it, beating the Cardinals, 8-3, last night at the new Busch Stadium.

“We lost a couple of series, but we have to keep a positive perspective,’’ Randolph said. “We didn’t have a big sit down. We don’t want to overreact.’’

There certainly were not any signs of panic before the game.

David Wright sprawled on a couch and watched, of all things, a dart throwing tournament, and laughed when a writer joked which guy he had in his dart fantasy league.

Cliff Floyd, when asked what he did during Monday’s day off, said: “I laid in my room and sulked.’’

Glavine spent much of the afternoon looking at video of the Cardinals before going out and producing another snapshot moment _ that included a minimum of run support until he was out of the game.

In the nine games Glavine has started, he has given up 18 runs and the Mets have given him 51, but with 19 coming in his last two starts.

Glavine helped himself with a third-inning walk and scored ahead of Jose Reyes’ homer off starter Jeff Suppan.

The Mets increased their lead to 3-0 in the fourth when Wright reached on a one-out walk, took second on Floyd’s bouncer back to the mound and scored on Xavier Nady’s single to center.

The rain was worth sitting through for the Mets, who broke the game open with four runs in the eighth.

Wright led off with a double off reliever Brad Thompson and Floyd was hit by a pitch. Nady followed with a sacrifice bunt first baseman Pujols could not handle, and when the ball squirted away Wright scored.

Pinch-hitter Julio Franco, Reyes and Carlos Beltran followed with RBI singles which gave the Mets’ bullpen breathing room and padded Glavine’s run support numbers.