It's been that kind of year.

"It's funny," Glavine ruminated, "but when I go to the mound, I don't think about how we've played at home, or why we haven't scored runs, or any of that. I always take the field anticipating that tonight will be different, that we're going to score runs, that we're going to play well, that tonight is the night we're going to turn it around."

And why wouldn't he think that? Over the last 11 seasons, he has seen teams wearing these same Braves shirts go 368 games over .500.

A million faces have changed around him. A million men have worn those shirts behind him. But in the end, the seasons always turned out the same -- with one more trip to one more postseason litmus test.

And that explains why, despite all the un-Braves-like moments they have lived through in his strange and frustrating season, there has always seemed to be little doubt, out there in the heartlands, that somehow, this team would find a way to win the East one more time.

"The neat thing is that me and (John) Smoltz and (Greg) Maddux are all that's left from the '93 team," Glavine said. "And to me, that's part of what's made our season fun, and yet remarkable. I think sometimes people look at our club and don't think anything has changed. They identify with me and Smoltz and Doggie and think not much is different. Well, yeah it is. We're the only three guys left."

Now he looks around him in this locker room and sees Julio Franco, back from Mexico at an age when he ought to be broadcasting, not playing first base. Now he looks around and sees Ken Caminiti, scarfed off the waiver wire.

Now he looks around and sees Steve Torrealba, just summoned back from the Venezuelan winter league to provide some emergency catching insurance in the wake of what appears to be a season-ending injury to Javy Lopez.

These guys aren't the Atlanta Braves of yesteryear. But somehow, when they can send Tom Glavine to the mound in the biggest games of the year, there are nights when it doesn't seem to matter.

On Wednesday, Glavine gave up a leadoff double to Jimmy Rollins to start the game, then froze Rollins at second base. Four pitches later, rookie second baseman Marcus Giles pumped a leadoff home run in the bottom of the first. And that flipped the switch to "on" for the Braves' heretofore missing-in-action offense.

They scored four runs in the first two innings off Phillies starter Robert Person, who had lost one of his last 20 starts and had given up three runs or fewer in nine in a row. And the way Glavine has been pitching (4-0 since Sept. 1, 10-2 since July 8), the Phillies were in big, big trouble.

By the time Glavine allowed another runner beyond first base, the Braves had scored eight runs in five innings for just the second time in their last 47 games, dating all the way back to Aug. 4. And that was that.

Glavine is now 8-1 this year against the NL East. He's now 29-12 after Aug. 1 over the past five seasons. He's 3-0 after a Braves loss over the last month. He now has won 16 games for the seventh time. And the two pitchers he tied on the all-time win list, at No. 224, on Wednesday -- Jim Bunning and Catfish Hunter -- happen to have plaques hanging in the Hall of Fame.

That, folks, is called credentials.

"After a while," he said, "after you pitch in this many big regular-season games and this many big September games and this many playoff games, you learn how to take the time to enjoy where you are a little more, instead of getting caught up in the importance of the games and letting your nerves get the best of you. You can't be afraid of failure. You learn you're not going to get the job done all the time. But if you fail, you fail. Just don't be afraid of failure.

"And the other thing is, when you have kids, your priorities change. Yeah, this game's a big deal. But when I go home, my kids don't care if I won or lost."

But some day, his kids will know how many more games like this he's won than he's lost. And because he won this one, his team has a chance to essentially end the NL East race Thursday night.

Realistically, the Phillies need to win all four games on their schedule now to stay alive. If they beat Atlanta on Thursday, they're back to within a game. If they then sweep the Reds in Cincinnati this weekend, they would force the Braves to sweep the Marlins in Atlanta.

But Phillies manager Larry Bowa stopped just short of saying this team has no room left for another stinker.

"Tomorrow night is a huge game for us," he said Wednesday. "If we don't win tomorrow night, the Braves have got to fall flat on their face and we'd have to sweep the Reds to tie. Let's just say it's no longer in our hands. Put it that way. We've got to rely on Florida now. But if we don't win tomorrow night, it's a moot point."

Thursday night, the Phillies will be dumping their fate on the talented right shoulder of Brandon Duckworth, making the 11th start of his major-league career. He is 16-3 this year if you count his 13 wins in Triple-A. He has pitched through the sixth inning in 17 consecutive starts, including all 10 in the big leagues. His ERA this season, in the minor leagues and major leagues, is a Maddux-like 2.81.

But he has never pitched in a game like this, against this team with "Braves" on their shirts, with nothing more than an entire season's work riding on it.

Tom Glavine knows exactly what Brandon Duckworth will be feeling. He's been there -- 10 years back in his rear-view mirror.

"Experience doesn't give you anything," Glavine said. "We had no experience in 1991, and we won. We have a lot of experience now, and it's no guarantee we'll win. All experience does is help you learn how to deal with these kinds of games at this point of the season."

Thursday night, John Burkett will be the man taking that experience to the mound with him. What no one knows is if that team around him will have one of those nights where it reminds you it has played these games a thousand times before -- or whether it's one of those nights, when it's hard to tell the 2001 Braves from the White Sox or the Angels or the Cubs.

Jayson Stark is a senior writer for ESPN.com.