NEW YORK -- Tom Glavine knew he had watched something out of the ordinary -- the Mets pushing their record to 10-2 and their lead to five games and Pedro Martinez gaining his 200th victory. At the same time though, he sensed a certain familiarity. He had seen this game previously. If not this one, then one all but identical to the 4-3 victory the Mets had hung on the Braves Monday night.

Indeed, he had witnessed dozens of others just like it because the Mets had beaten the Braves just as the Braves so often had beaten the Mets.

"It is the way we used to win," Glavine said, using "we" as a pronoun for the Braves -- those Braves, his Braves. "I liked watching it."

The first-place Mets hadn't streamrolled the second-place Braves, they merely had outplayed them and outscored them. They had out-Braved them.

"Good pitching, some power, good relief, good defense," Glavine said in his impromptu scouting report, saving the best for last. "And no mistakes."

Championships are won with those ingredients -- and without mistakes.

"That's how we won them when I was there," Glavine said. "It looks like it still works." It worked quite well for the Mets in their first 2006 venture against the team that always seems to be in their way. They became the first Mets team to win 10 of its first 12 games and, remarkably, the first Major League team ever to build a five-game lead in merely 12 games.

It hardly is an insurmountable lead -- even if it were August 17. The Mets knew that and repeatedly deemphasized the importance of the series. "It's only April" was their favorite disclaimer. But, at the same time, every team has played its first 12 games and none have built a five-game lead. The achievement is, at least, noteworthy.

As is Martinez's. The Mets starter became the 103rd pitcher to reach 200 victories by beating the Braves for the fourth time in his six starts against them as a Met. He wasn't masterful, but he was effective enough to win for the third time in three starts this season.

He trailed twice, 1-0 after the first and 2-1 after top of third. Xavier Nady got him even in the second with his third home run in four games. Carlos Delgado put him ahead by a run in the third with his all-but-scheduled home run against losing pitcher Jorge Sosa. When Delgado singled in the first inning, it was his 13th hit in 26 career at-bats against Sosa (0-3). The home run made it 14 for 27 -- with seven home runs.

Delgado tactfully called it "luck."

The Braves knew it was a mistake. Catcher Brian McCann had called for Sosa to bounce the 1-2 pitch in the dirt. Sosa threw a 1-2 slider over the plate. He forgot to bounce it. There's a reason his ERA is 10.45.

The run that proved decisive scored in the fourth when Cliff Floyd led off with a double and Nady followed with single for his fifth RBI in two games.

Martinez made some mistakes in 6 2/3 innings, though surrendering a home run to Andruw Jones, the 2005 National League home run leader, doesn't qualify as one -- no matter how far Jones hit his fifth in the sixth. Runs happen.

Martinez did allow two other runs and five other hits. And when he reached 108 pitches with a runner on second base, Willie Randolph made a move that wasn't a mistake either. He hooked him.

For the first time in Martinez's 34 starts with the Mets, he was removed mid-inning. But the Braves hardly welcomed his departure. Duaner Sanchez replaced him, took full advantage of Shea Stadium's winds and retired his only four batters, two on strikeouts. That left the ninth for Billy Wagner, who also faced four batters and struck out two. Wagner earned his fourth save. Sanchez earned accolades.

"He was filthy," Wagner said. "But when hasn't he been filthy?"

The winds added movement to breaking balls, and Sanchez knew how to use them.

"I threw every pitch I had," he said. "They were moving all over."

They were ill winds for the Braves, who didn't need a weatherman to know which way they blowing. They played without disabled Chipper Jones and injured Edgar Renteria. And as Wagner pointed out, "Glavine here and Maddux is sitting in Chicago. And they've got their biggest asset, Bobby Cox sitting over there in the dugout."

"I shouldn't have to say this, it's so early, but they're not out of the picture," he continued. "We're not going to run away with this division."

At this rate, they might. But if the Mets and Braves play the remainder of the schedule as they have played so far, the Mets will win the division by 68 games. Not likely.

"We're just off to a good start, and they're not," Glavine said. "It's just one series in April. What will it mean in a month if we win two of three or lose two of three? It means more than beating Milwaukee over the weekend. But it's still one series."