ATLANTA -- There will be 17 more confrontations against the Mets this year, and things can change over the course of the next five months. But after their first encounter against their division rivals, the Braves feel better about themselves and an opening week that had plenty of pitfalls.

By the time the Braves had introduced themselves to the Mets with an 11-5 victory at Turner Field on Saturday afternoon, Atlanta manager Bobby Cox had plenty of reasons to feel proud. Chipper Jones had enjoyed a second straight three-hit performance and Tim Hudson got the support to ensure at least one of his two strong mound efforts this week would be rewarded with a win.

Even Kelly Johnson, who was out of the lineup for a third straight game because of a strained right knee, made a pivotal contribution with his two-out, seventh-inning grand slam. The blast provided plenty of insurance and gave Cox the opportunity to minimize the amount of arms he'd need out of the bullpen in the final two innings.

"When we're clicking and we've got all facets of the game going, we're a handful," said Jones, who is hitting .478 (11-for-23) through the season's first five games. "It's just a matter of when that particular team is going to show up consistently. When it does, we're a really good team, and when it doesn't, we're awful. You've seen it a couple of times in the first five games, how bad we can be."

Instead of making the mistakes that had destroyed them in the three one-run losses they'd suffered earlier in the week, the Braves played a relatively flawless game and even kept their composure when the umpiring crew correctly fixed their error and extended the fifth inning long enough for the Mets to score twice and cut the deficit to 4-3.

With the bases loaded and one out, third-base umpire Bruce Dreckman ruled that a diving Mark Kotsay caught Jose Reyes' sinking liner in shallow center. Immediately, Kotsay threw the ball back to the infield to seemingly retire Angel Pagan, who had raced to third base without tagging and even momentarily passed Ryan Church, who didn't advance after seeing Dreckman's out call.

After short consultation, the umpires reversed the call, gave Reyes his RBI single and advanced each of the runners one base. Cox conceded the right call was made and indicated the first umpire error prevented him from arguing about the fact that Pagan had passed Church. Once play resumed, the Mets added another run and then saw Hudson shut them down with a scoreless sixth inning.

"They had a chance to tie that thing up in the fifth and sixth innings," said Hudson, who allowed three earned runs and six hits in six innings. "But I was able to get out of that jam and [our offense] was able to put some crooked numbers on them later in the game."

Jeff Francoeur, who had an RBI single in the two-run third inning, joined Jones with a three-hit performance. Kotsay finally found some offensive luck with a pair of hits that at least allow the statistics to back up the fact that he's had a good opening week as Andruw Jones' replacement in center field.

Coming off an impressive Spring Training, Mets starter John Maine was introduced to the regular season by a thorough effort from the Braves' opportune lineup. Each of the eight hits surrendered by the lanky right-hander were singles. But he found himself facing an early deficit because of the two-out singles Francoeur, Diaz and Mark Teixeira produced in the third and fourth innings.

"The lineup came through big time," Cox said. "We had a lot of runners on and a lot of chances to score today and picked them up."

Along with the lineup, Cox also got some contribution from his reserves. Ruben Gotay's sixth-inning single put him in position to score a run against the organization that put him on waivers last week. But the bench's big blast came courtesy of Johnson, who drilled Sosa's 3-2, two-out delivery down the right-field line for his second career grand slam.

"It was good to have a good at-bat like that after not having an at-bat for a while," said Johnson, who hadn't had an at-bat since Monday night's home opener.

Once Johnson provided some breathing room and created a six-run advantage, Cox let left-handed specialist Royce Ring work all of the eighth inning. Closer Rafael Soriano, who had made just two previous appearances, worked a scoreless ninth inning in a non-save situation.

During the Pirates series that was played earlier this week, Cox utilized 23 pitchers. His bullpen got a rest courtesy of Friday night's rainout and once again wasn't taxed during this series opener against the Mets.

This was just another reason for the Braves to feel better about an opening week that was filled with frustration and lost opportunities.

"With a break here or there, we could be 5-0 and the outlook would be totally different," Jones said. "We've just got to concentrate on the team showing up today, showing up five or six times a week."