NEW YORK -- It's starting to look like a cause-and-effect relationship. Steven Matz takes the mound for the New York Mets and their bats turn ferocious to support him.

The Mets hit four home runs -- including a pair by Lucas Duda -- to back a sparkling outing by Matz in an 8-0 win Wednesday over the hapless Atlanta Braves before 31,783 at Citi Field. Asdrubal Cabrera and Rene Rivera also hit home runs, and Matz threw 7 2/3 brilliant two-hit innings.

The Mets have 13 victories in their last 16 games and just won their sixth straight series. The last time the club won six series in a row was in 2006.

The last time Matz pitched, April 29, the Mets set a club record with a 12-run third inning in a 13-1 win over the San Francisco Giants. In his last start before that, the Mets scored eight runs -- the team's batters have been pounding opposing pitching the last three weeks.

The Mets have 38 home runs in their last 18 games. This time, homers came from predictable sources as well as surprising ones. Duda inserted himself into the race for the team lead with his two homers; he now has seven and trails only Neil Walker (nine) and Yoenis Cespedes (eight). For Cabrera, it was his second home run of the season. Rivera's homer was his first as a Mets player; the former Tampa Bay Rays catcher was called up April 26 after Travis d'Arnaud went on the 15-day disabled list with a strained shoulder.

This is the fourth time in 26 games that the Mets have hit four or more homers. They hit six on April 19 against the Philadelphia Phillies, four against the Phillies on April 18 and four against the Cleveland Indians on April 15.

The only hits Matz allowed were a two-out single to Braves pitcher Jhoulys Chacin in the third inning and a two-out single to Erick Aybar in the eighth. He also allowed another baserunner in the seventh when he hit Freddie Freeman with a pitch.

After a poor first start of the season -- where he couldn't finish two innings -- Matz has been excellent. In the four starts since then, he is 4-0 with a 0.67 ERA, and in three of those outings, he didn't give up a run.