Santana leaves with strained pectoral muscle, listed day-to-day, Mets beat Braves 4-2

Wright, Santana lead Mets’ 4-2 win over Braves

ATLANTA — David Wright homered, Johan Santana won for the first time in four starts and the New York Mets snapped the Atlanta Braves’ five-game winning streak with a 4-2 victory Thursday night.

The Mets, who had dropped three straight, broke a 13-game stretch in which they scored three runs or less against the NL East-leading Braves.

Tim Hudson (15-6) lost for the first time in nine starts after allowing eight hits and four runs — three earned — with one walk and four strikeouts in seven innings.

Santana (11-9) left after five innings, his shortest outing in 23 starts, throwing 65 pitches. The Mets later announced that the left-hander had a strained pectoral muscle and was listed as day-to-day.

Santana allowed three hits, one run and one walk with three strikeouts to avoid losing four straight starts for the first time since May 18-June 3, 2004 with Minnesota.

The Mets took a 2-0 lead in the first off Hudson, who was 6-0 with a 1.43 ERA in his previous eight starts.

Carlos Beltran tripled and scored on second baseman Omar Infante’s errant relay throw to third. Chris Carter scored with the bases loaded on Joaquin Arias’ infield RBI single.

Hudson had beaten the Mets in four straight starts. Overall, his last loss was July 17 against Milwaukee.

Brian McCann led off the Atlanta second with his 20th homer to cut the lead to 2-1.

Wright’s 22nd homer made it 3-1 in the sixth. Before his solo shot sailed into the left-field seats, Wright was hitting .059 in 34 at-bats at Turner Field this season.

The Mets took a 4-1 lead in the seventh against Peter Moylan. The run was unearned because the next batter, Lucas Duda, reached on Infante’s fielding error. Beltran’s infield RBI groundout scored Luis Castillo.

Atlanta made it 4-2 in the eighth on Martin Prado’s infield RBI single off Bobby Parnell.

Hisanori Takahashi pitched the ninth to earn his third save in as many chances. After McCann led off with a single, Takahashi got Matt Diaz to fly out before striking out Alex Gonzalez and Melky Cabrera.

Hudson, who earlier in the day was named the NL pitcher of the month for August, lost for the first time since July 17 against Milwaukee.

Over his previous three starts, Santana had a 3.91 ERA as the Mets scored an average of just 1.47 runs for him. He improved to 3-6 with a 2.28 ERA in 12 career starts against Atlanta.

Hudson dropped to 12-6 with a 3.46 ERA in 19 career starts against New York.

Notes: The Braves activated INF Troy Glaus from the 15-day DL after he missed 14 games with an inflamed left knee. … Atlanta was trying for its first four-game sweep of the Mets at Turner Field since May 2008, a three-day stretch that included a doubleheader. … Angel Pagan, who missed the last two games with right wrist tendinitis, replaced Carter in RF to begin the bottom of the seventh. … New York RHP R.A. Dickey flew to Chicago a day early for his start Friday against the Cubs. … The Mets purchased the contract of rookie C Mike Nickeas from Triple-A Buffalo.