Tony DeMarco

For a team that spent the first four months of the season running away from the rest of the National League, the New York Mets have run into more than their share of trouble lately.

So much in fact, that the Mets you now see are noticeably different than the ones who put all that distance between themselves and the rest of the league.

The good news on Tom Glavine — that his blood-clotting condition won’t require surgery — is definitely the exception around Shea Stadium these days. Even with a quick and positive resolution to Glavine’s situation, the Mets still are left to do without their No. 1 starting pitcher, left fielder, primary setup man and backup catcher. And we won’t even get into Paul Lo Duca’s off-the-field soap opera; at least he’s active.

Nothing can stop the Mets from winning the NL East, as they took an insurmountable 13½-game lead into Tuesday’s games. At 75-48, they are headed for well over 90 wins, as a 20-19 finish will leave them with 95. The Cardinals and Dodgers — the teams with the next two best records in the NL — would have to play .750 baseball down the stretch to reach the 95-win level. More realistically, they are looking at around 90 wins.

But for the Mets, this season has become much more than surpassing the Atlanta Braves for NL East supremacy. It is about advancing deep into the postseason and getting back to the World Series for the first time since 2000 — and you have to wonder about all of that now.

As it turns out, Glavine will miss only one turn in the rotation. He will be pushed back to the weekend, as doctors want him to have time to heal after undergoing an angiogram. The scare was prompted by Glavine feeling coolness in his left ring finger following his last start. Tests showed evidence of blood clotting in his left shoulder, but the condition has been present for awhile, so surgery wasn’t deemed necessary.

A surgical procedure would have ended Glavine’s season — and put the Mets’ postseason chances further in jeopardy in the wake of Pedro Martinez being on the disabled list with a strained right calf that flared in his Aug. 14 start against Philadelphia, when he allowed six earned runs in one inning. The injury is serious enough that Martinez underwent an MRI, and his return date in uncertain at this point.

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How serious can blood clotting be? In August of 2004, Colorado Rockies right-hander Aaron Cook suffered a life-threatening problem that began in his right shoulder and spread to both lungs, and nearly collapsed on the mound in a start against the Cincinnati Reds.

It took two surgeries to ease the situation, including one in which a rib was removed from Cook’s right side to help increase blood flow. He returned in time to make 13 starts for the Rockies in 2005, and won the 2005 Tony Conigliaro Award. But Cook was 25 at the time of the surgery. Considering Glavine is 40, an operation could have meant the end of a career that should land him in the Hall of Fame. He currently is 13 wins shy of 300.

Glavine leads the staff in starts (26) and innings pitched (160.2), and his 12 victories are tied for the club lead with Steve Trachsel. Martinez is 9-5 with a 3.80 ERA, 125 strikeouts and 90 hits allowed in 20 starts and 122 innings.

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