The doubleheader started ominously for Glavine and the Braves. On the sixth pitch of the game, Luis Castillo lofted a fly ball that barely cleared the wall in left for his first homer of the season. The Mets then loaded the bases with one out on singles by Wright and Church, sandwiched around a walk to Carlos Beltran.

But Moises Alou hit a hard liner right at third baseman Chipper Jones, and right fielder Jeff Francoeur hauled in a fly ball to deep right by slumping Carlos Delgado to get the Braves out the inning trailing just 1-0.

After that, Glavine (2-1) was unhittable. The Mets went three-up, three-down over the next five innings before the 42-year-old lefty, bothered a bit by a sore right knee, turned it over to the bullpen.

“Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would go 17 up, 17 down after that first inning,” said Glavine, who spent the previous five seasons with the Mets before re-signing with his original team over the winter. “There was no reason to expect that.”

After the first, New York didn’t have another runner until Reyes singled off Blaine Boyer with two outs in the eighth.

Brian McCann homered and drove in three runs for the Braves, who handed John Maine (5-3) his first loss in nearly a month. The right-hander had won four straight starts but was knocked around in this one, giving up four runs and eight hits in four-plus innings.

Glavine’s performance was especially satisfying in light of how he finished 2007 with the Mets, getting rocked on the final day of the regular season to complete New York’s historic collapse in the NL East race.

“There were a lot of naysayers about me coming to pitch with the way I finished last season,” he said. “I still think I can pitch. That’s the most important thing.”

He’ll get no argument from his former teammates, who were coming off a two-game sweep of the Yankees.

“As the game went on, he threw more off-speed stuff,” Delgado said. “He’s a smart guy.”

The Atlanta bullpen extended its streak of scoreless innings to 20 in a row before Boyer gave up a run-scoring double to Ramon Castro in the eighth inning of game two. After allowing an RBI single to Reyes, Manny Acosta got the final four outs for his third save.

The long day ended with a scary play. While turning a double play at second base, Braves shortstop Yunel Escobar struck Church in the head with his right knee. Church was face down on the field for several minutes before staggering off, while Escobar had to be helped to the Braves dugout.

Church had a mild concussion but was taken to Piedmont Hospital as a precaution. Escobar’s knee was heavily wrapped and he would only say, “No DL.”

Notes: Atlanta’s Mark Teixeira reached base seven times in the doubleheader on four hits and three walks. ... Jones is hitting .409 after going 3-of-8 in the two games. ... Delgado shows little sign of escaping his season-long slump. He went 0-for-6 with four strikeouts and is hitting just .222. ... Francoeur didn’t play in the second game, ending the majors longest streak of consecutive games played at 370.

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