PHOENIX -- Here's the dirt on Tom Glavine's victory against the Diamondbacks on Monday night. Or, as he might say, here's to the dirt -- here's to the grassless strip that connects the mound to the circle that surrounds the plate at Bank One Ballpark.

It is that strip that makes this arena unique in the National League -- Comerica Park in Detroit has one too. It's a tangible element of the legacy of Buck Showalter that connects this modern structure with its retractable roof to baseball's topless past and, in Glavine's mind, the strip that makes him a remarkably effective pitcher here in the desert.

Glavine is a pitcher of a special stripe regardless of the ballpark. Here, he is a pitcher of a special strip.

It showed again Monday night when he shut down the Diamondbacks in the Mets' 4-1 victory. Locked in with the help of the strip, Glavine pitched into the ninth inning and allowed merely five hits. When Braden Looper completed the ninth for him, Glavine had an 8-1 record at the BOB and another reason they ought to call it the TOM when he's here.

And he's convinced the strip has a lot to do with it.

"It just helps me lock in," he said. "It's tunnel vision for me."

Glavine, of course, has prospered without the strip. He has won 264 games elsewhere. But the fact that he has lost only once to the Boys from the BOB in nine games on their turf is what makes his record so remarkable.

"It doesn't start with the strip, but it's a part of it -- no question," he said. And he smiled when the idea of strip at Shea Stadium was broached.

"It has to help him," said Gerald Williams, who knows Glavine as an opponent and as a teammate with the Mets and Braves. "Have you seen that man's mechanics? Every pitch is the same. You give him that strip. It assists his discipline."

With that assist, Glavine gained his third victory in four starts and the 272nd victory of his career. And with an appreciation for symmetry and round numbers, he evened his record, and that of losing pitcher Branden Webb, at 10-10.

Moreover, he gave the Mets what they needed: innings from their starter, an essential after Kris Benson's cameo appearance Sunday, and a victory in the first game of their road trip. Even with the victory Monday, the Mets' record is 3-7 in such games.

Not that winning the first counts more than winning the second or the seventh. But it might help the Mets in their recurring trouble with road inertia. And what better time? The game Monday was the first of 17 on the road in a 20-game sequence that stretches to the second Sunday of September. It could be a fatal run for a team with a .307 winning percentage in its first 59 road games.

Should the Mets perform at that level in their remaining 22 games away from Shea, they could win all their 16 remaining home games and not win 90 games overall. And 90 victories probably won't bring home a Wild Card, anyway. So the fact that they are 2 1/2 games behind the National League Wild Card-leading Astros doesn't mean so much.

"I sense we're starting to recognize that we have to play better on the road if we're going to get where we want to be," manager Willie Randolph said before the game. "We knew it, but now there's more urgency to it."

And afterward, the manager saw more of it. "I think we picked up on what Tom was doing. He comes from a team that knew how to get it going when they had to."

Glavine gave the Diamondbacks precious little. Four of the five hits were singles. The lone extra-base hit, a double by Shawn Green in the seventh, produced the lone run. Pitching on the 18th anniversary of his first Major League victory, Glavine walked one -- he has walked four in his last 59 innings -- and struck out five. At one point, he retired 14 straight batters.

He used his cutter and curve, relatively new weapons, more than he had since he introduced them. The strip, he said, allowed him to do so. He knew he could regain his focus on his fastball and changeup because, "I was so locked in."

And it helped that the Mets gave him early support. They scored twice in the first inning before Webb retired two batters.

Kaz Matsui, starting for the third time since ending his extended assignment on the disabled list, doubled down the third-base line with one out before Webb walked Carlos Beltran. Cliff Floyd then pulled a double into the right-field corner for two RBIs, his 77th and 78th.

Webb then retired David Wright and Victor Diaz to end the inning and began a sequence of 14 of 17 batters retired. He allowed walks to Beltran and Floyd in the third and Jose Reyes hit his fifth home run, his second in three games, in the fifth. Diaz hit his eighth home run in the ninth against Tim Worrell.

By then, Glavine was comfortable, thinking of three days of golf in the desert and perhaps a strip of dirt at Shea, connecting the mound to the plate and him to 300 wins.