ATLANTA — For a month, the Mets avoided nights like this. They punished weak opponents, often with stirring comebacks. They withstood injuries and avoided gaffes. They gave their fans a well-earned measure of hope.

On Wednesday at SunTrust Park, it felt like the first half again. The Mets came back to take a seventh-inning lead on the Atlanta Braves. Then Manager Mickey Callaway pulled starter Steven Matz, who had thrown just 79 pitches in six dazzling innings. The Braves promptly scored five runs off Seth Lugo to win, 6-4, giving the Mets their third loss in a row.

“We had the best reliever in baseball sitting down there in Seth Lugo; he’s been doing the job for a month and a half,” Callaway said, adding that Matz had just run the bases and was due to face two dangerous right-handed hitters. “I’ll make that move 100 times out of 100. That’s the right move in my mind. I understand that it didn’t work out.”

Matz had two hits of his own — including a two-out single that sparked the Mets’ go-ahead rally in the top of the seventh — and retired 14 Braves in a row. And while Lugo allowed some weak hits, he walked the leadoff man and the next six hitters made contact off him, dooming the Mets.