By George Henry
ATLANTA - Even during the worst days of his slump, Troy Glaus never lost faith in his skills.
"I've felt better than the results have been," he said. "However, this is a result-oriented profession. At some point, the balls have to fall."
Glaus drove in four runs, rookie Jason Heyward homered again and Tim Hudson pitched well into the seventh inning to help the Atlanta Braves beat the Houston Astros 10-1 on Saturday.
The Braves have won two straight games after ending a nine-game skid that was their worst in nearly four years. Houston lost its fifth straight.
Glaus had three hits, raising his average 27 points to .221, in his most productive game since Aug. 9, 2008, when he had five RBIs for St. Louis in a 12-3 win at the Chicago Cubs.
"I'm not going to sit here and say that I should be hitting .360," said Glaus, who's in his first season with Atlanta. "But I've felt like I've been swinging the bat better than .180 or whatever it was."
Hudson (2-1) allowed five hits and one run with two walks and one strikeout in 62/3 innings. The right-hander faced the minimum against his last 12 batters before Peter Moylan, the first of three Atlanta relievers, replaced him with two out in the seventh.
Cramping in his right forearm and both calves eventually caused Hudson to signal from the mound that manager Bobby Cox should take him out.
"To be honest, I didn't really feel great the whole game," Hudson said. "But I was able to throw some sinkers and throw enough strikes to get some ground balls, and we ended up putting some runs on the board."
Hudson improved to 3-0 with a 1.19 ERA in five career starts against Houston. Overall, the 34-year-old Hudson is 150-79 in 12 seasons and 107-2 when given a lead of at least three runs.
"To be honest, I forgot it was going to be 150 until Chipper (Jones) told me congratulations after the game," Hudson said. "It just means I've been around. That's about it. It's great to get that up on the board, and hopefully there will be a lot more."
Heyward's seventh homer, leading off the seventh, gave the Braves a 7-1 lead. The Atlanta right fielder leads all rookies in home runs and RBIs (20).
Wandy Rodriguez (1-3) gave up 10 hits, five runs - two earned - one walk and struck out five. Houston relievers Chris Sampson, Sammy Gervacio and Brian Moehler followed the left-hander, whose start was pushed back one day because of back spasms.
"I felt fine," Rodriguez said. "I made a couple of mistakes in the fifth inning, but I didn't miss by much."
Glaus put the Braves up 2-1 in the third with a two-run double, and all three of Atlanta's runs in the fifth were unearned after leadoff batter Omar Infante reached on a fielding error by third baseman Pedro Feliz. Glaus followed with an RBI single before Matt Diaz's fielder's-choice RBI and David Ross's run-scoring single gave the Braves a 5-1 lead.
In the sixth, Glaus drove in his fourth run with aI single.
"I'm trying to just simplify things," he said. "Just put the bat on the ball and not worry to much about the result, but just have a good at-bat, put a good swing on it."
Infante and Martin Prado went 6-for-10 with five runs scored at the top of the lineup. Infante had an RBI single and Prado a two-run double in the seventh.
Lance Berkman gave Houston a 1-0 with an RBI groundout in the first.
The Astros had won Rodriguez's last two starts, a span of 141/3 innings during which he went 1-0 with a 1.88 ERA and 10 strikeouts.