ATLANTA — Matt Harvey, by his own admission, struggled, but he still pitched well enough to win. The Mets, without Yoenis Cespedes, went without a home run but managed to put runs on the board. They were beneficiaries of a most favorable review. And yet, with all the figuring out the Mets did, they still could not solve what recently has been an impossible riddle for them.

How the heck do you beat the Braves, owners of the National League’s worst record?

Reliever Addison Reed served up a two-run homer to Adonis Garcia in the bottom of the eighth, and the Braves, coupled with last weekend’s sweep, made it four straight victories over the Mets by rallying for a 4-3 win Thursday at Turner Field.

“Stupid execution,” said Reed (1-2) who left a 0-2 fastball in the middle, and Garcia pounced to deny Harvey the win. “[Catcher Travis d’Arnaud] called the right pitch. It was supposed to be a little bit higher, and I left it over the plate.”

So the Braves, who had Arodys Vizcaino work a scoreless ninth inning for his ninth save that made a winner of reliever Jim Johnson (1-4), had their seventh win in eight games.

The Mets seemed to be leading a charmed life. Harvey was not awful but not particularly sharp, surrendering eight hits in six innings with three strikeouts and no walks. He surrendered two earned runs but left up 3-2.

“It was definitely a struggle,” said Harvey, who lost in that Braves sweep at Citi Field. “I kind of went back to feeling not as great as I did in starts before this, but I was able to make some quality pitches when I needed to and guys made plays behind me. A couple balls [Alejandro] De Aza tracked down helped me a lot, helped me get through six innings. It was a struggle, but like I said, when I needed to make a pitch, I was able to do that.”

Harvey worked out of two-hit trouble in both the first and second innings, benefited from a De Aza catch in the third and gave up solo runs in the fourth and sixth around a clean fifth inning.

“Obviously, as many hits as I gave up was not ideal, but I was able to locate for the most part early in at-bats,” Harvey said. “Strikeouts were down but I was happy about pounding the zone and not giving free passes like I did last time.”

Manager Terry Collins saw the effort as a positive step.

“Matt pitched pretty good,” Collins said. “It was a tough night to pitch with the heat, but I thought he threw the ball better. Every time he goes out, hopefully he can build and build on what he did. I thought his changeup was pretty good. I thought he threw some pretty good sliders. Positives.”

Yeah, but the night also had negatives — like A.J. Pierzynski stroking RBI hits, a single in the fourth and a double in the sixth, scoring Nick Markakis each time for the Braves. And of course, there was Garcia’s fourth homer. Clinging to a 3-2 lead, the Mets brought in Jerry Blevins to start the eighth. He gave up a single to Freddie Freeman and fanned Markakis. So the righty Reed was summoned to face the right-handed Garcia. Oops.

The Mets scored in the second on a De Aza RBI double. Neil Walker drove in two runs with a sac fly in the third and an RBI single in the fifth. That hit made it 3-1.

The Mets caught an apparent break when the umpires, following a review, upheld a double play that ended the seventh. With runners on second and third and one out, Ender Inciarte hit a fly toward left. Michael Conforto made a running catch in foul territory and fired a one-hopper to d’Arnaud. Home-plate ump Jordan Baker ruled Emilio Bonifacio out. Replays appeared to show Bonifacio beating the tag. Or not.

The replay upheld the ruling and led to the ejection of Braves interim manager Brian Snitker. The review, which took 1:52, confirmed there was no violation of the home-plate collision rule by d’Arnaud.

“I knew it was going to be close. Incredible play by Travis,” said Conforto, who earlier had banged his knee catching a foul fly.

“I just tried to make sure I caught it and applied the tag. Great play by Conforto,” d’Arnaud said. “He was in foul territory. To get rid of it that quick and make that strong of a throw was impressive.”