Braves 7, Mets 5: Freddie Freeman and Justin Upton each finished with three hits and Ervin Santana pitched seven strong innings as visiting Atlanta held on to improve to 7-1 on its current nine-game road trip.

Santana (2-0) allowed one run on six hits with two walks and seven strikeouts, but the Braves’ bullpen nearly blew the victory. David Carpenter allowed two runs in the eighth as the Mets drew within 4-3, and after Upton crushed a three-run homer to center in the top of the ninth, Craig Kimbrel surrendered two runs before Jordan Walden induced a game-ending groundout with the bases loaded to earn his first save.

New York starter Bartolo Colon (1-3), who hurled seven shutout innings April 8 in Atlanta, gave up three runs on eight hits with one walk and six strikeouts in seven innings. David Wright went 3-for-5, extending his hitting streak to 10 games, and Daniel Murphy added three hits.

Wright’s single through a drawn-in infield put the Mets up 1-0 in the first, but the Braves took the lead on a strange play in the third. Freeman appeared to foul a pitch off his right foot, but the ball squibbed in front of the plate and Colon’s throw to first sailed down the right-field line, the infield hit and throwing error scoring Santana from second and B.J. Upton from first to make it 2-1 Atlanta.

Freeman extended the lead to 3-1 in the fifth with his third hit and Justin Upton scored on a wild pitch in the eighth to push the Braves advantage to 4-1. Carpenter allowed eighth-inning RBI singles to Chris Young and Travis d’Arnaud to bring the Mets within a run, and Wright’s double and Young’s single off Kimbrel made it 7-5 before Walden got d'Arnaud to ground out to short to end it.

GAME NOTEBOOK: New York manager Terry Collins came out to discuss whether Freeman’s infield hit in the third had hit his foot, but a ball fouled off a hitter’s body is not reviewable. … Atlanta RF Jason Heyward caught Lucas Duda’s drive at the right-field wall with two on and the Braves leading 4-2 in the eighth. … Kimbrel, who has five saves, had not pitched in a week due to shoulder stiffness.