Asked if he remembered his last RBI, Hernandez said, “I think it was in Cuba.”

Hudson’s third walk of the inning finally brought manager Bobby Cox out of the dugout to lift his starter. But Beltran got hold of Paronto’s third pitch, sending a drive into the right-field seats that sent many in the sellout of 49,047 scurrying for home.

“I thought I threw some pretty good pitches, but they hit them,” Hudson said. “You’ve got to tip your cap to them. They’re a good ballclub.”

He might be giving the Mets a little too much credit. Over his last nine starts, Hudson is 2-5 with an ERA of 8.87. He has allowed 70 hits, eight homers and 23 walks during that stretch of 44 2-3 innings.

“Obviously, this is something no one wants to go through,” Hudson said. “I feel good. It’s almost like the other team knows what I’m going to throw sometimes.”

The only downer for the Mets: First baseman Carlos Delgado left the game in the third after getting struck on the right knee with a pitch from Hudson. But X-rays were negative and he was day to day with a painful bruise.

The Mets started the game with three straight hits off Hudson, including Beltran’s homer to right-center. The Braves mitigated the damage somewhat by throwing out Jose Reyes attempting to steal.

Atlanta scored in the bottom half after Wright messed up a likely double play with a high throw from third base.

Chavez hit a run-scoring triple in the second, but Marcus Giles tied it up with a two-out, two-run single in the Braves’ half. Reyes kicked away a grounder at shortstop to extend the inning.

Notes: Hernandez picked up his second regular-season win against the Braves, the first coming on June 2, 2000, when he allowed one run in seven innings for the Yankees. ... Beltran had the 16th multihomer game of his career and third this season. ... Hudson allowed nine earned runs in a game two other times, most recently on May 4, 2002, while pitching for Oakland.

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