Three weeks ago, the Mets feared that Tom Glavine wouldn’t pitch until 2007, if then.

The 40-year-old ace left-hander returns to the mound Friday night in Houston for the first time in 16 days after being sidelined by a blood clot in his left shoulder.

I got a feeling that Tommy’s going to go just like Tommy was before. He had just a little down time there,” manager Willie Randolph said Thursday night in Denver after Glavine flew out early to get a good night’s rest in Texas. “Tommy is feeling good. He’s working on the side. I talked to him a long time yesterday. He feels great.

“So, I think what you’re going to see is someone who probably didn’t even skip a beat,” Randolph said.

Glavine is 12–6 with a 3.92 ERA this season. The two-time Cy Young Award winner has 287 career wins.

In the midst of another stellar season, he felt coldness in his left ring finger after his start August 16 in Philadelphia. Glavine’s left middle finger and index finger were diagnosed in 1990 with Raynaud’s, a condition caused by poor circulation that leads to numbness and coldness, but this was the first time his ring finger was affected.

At first, Glavine feared his career might be over. A week later, though, he was told surgery wasn’t necessary and he only needed rest.

Pedro Martinez threw at the team’s minor-league complex in Florida yesterday.

“Pedro tossed today really, nicely and felt good. Maybe, hopefully, maybe, he will be on the mound on Saturday. Maybe,” Randolph said. “Don’t hold me to it. … Pedro might come out in the morning and say, ‘You know what, I don’t think I’ll take the mound today. I’ll do it tomorrow.'”

“The bottom line is he’s feeling good and coming along nicely. And we are looking to hopefully to get him back in a real game somewhere in the middle of September,” he said.