Tim Hudson's velocity issues were fleeting, as was, apparently, the bad karma from the Braves' recent road trip.

The Braves won their fifth game in a row Monday night, beating the Washington Nationals 7-3 behind 6 2/3 solid innings from Hudson, who bounced back from an oddly ineffective start.

Pouya Dianat/Staff Photographer (ENLARGE)

Tim Hudson rebounded from a poor start last Wednesday to earn his third victory of the season.

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Five days earlier, Hudson had topped out in the mid-80s from lingering effects of the flu. He was back throwing in his usual low 90s throughout the game Monday and working the Nationals into a familiar trance. He scattered 10 hits but allowed only two runs, to move to 7-1 with a 1.13 ERA in 11 career starts against them.

"Little more normal this time out," said Hudson, now 3-1 with a 2.93 ERA. "It's hard to put your finger on what the cause was last time. It must have been the effects of the flu bug finally catching up. It was nice to go up there today and look up there and see [velocity readings] with a 9 in front of it, instead of an 8."

Hudson only recently realized he'd lost about five pounds while he was sick. That helped explain why he threw as hard as he could in Florida and came up with only 84 mph.

"Obviously, there was some cause for concern," Hudson said. "[But] after my bullpen [session] a few days ago, I felt like everything was coming out pretty good. It showed tonight."

The Braves (10-9) moved above .500 for the first time this season. They are 7-2 at Turner Field, which has helped erase the effects of a 3-6 road trip.

"Once you go through something like that road trip, you can't help but come out stronger on the other end," said Matt Diaz, who went 3-for-4 with a double and scored two runs Monday. "You have two ways to look at it: 'Oh man, we might have given away our season early in April,' or 'Wow, that's got to be as bad as it gets; let's get going with the rest of the season.' "

While matching their longest win streak of last season, five Braves starters have gone 4-0 with an 0.95 ERA (three earned runs in 28 1/3 innings). The only no-decision was for Jeff Bennett, who held the Dodgers scoreless Friday but was one out shy of the requisite five innings.

"Everybody is doing the job; defense has been just terrific," manager Bobby Cox said, puffing on a cigar. "Starters, that's the most runs we've given up in a while — two."

The rotation comes back around to John Smoltz tonight when he goes for his 3,000th career strikeout against the Nationals. He needs four to become only the 16th pitcher to reach that mark.

Hudson wasn't as pinpoint as he'd been 10 days earlier in eight innings of a 3-0 shutout victory in Washington. But he kept the Nats at bay using a pair of outs at the plate — on Jeff Francoeur's first assist of the season and later a throw home by Yunel Escobar on an infield hit off Martin Prado's glove.

The Braves built a 7-0 lead before Hudson gave up his first runs in the seventh, including one unearned run on a Mark Teixeira error. He walked two, struck out three and threw 61 of 95 pitches for strikes.

The Braves got hits from the top eight spots in the lineup and added a pair of RBIs from Hudson's spot on a sacrifice bunt and a bases-loaded walk.

Prado connected for two doubles and drove in two runs, batting leadoff in place of Kelly Johnson, who got the night off. Brian McCann homered for the fifth time this season. And Chipper Jones extended his hitting streak to 13 games, going 1-for-3 with a walk.

The Braves, who had never managed more than three runs against Matt Chico in the six previous times they'd faced him, rolled up six runs in four innings, Chico's shortest outing ever against them.