(My Sportsbook) - Right-hander Aaron Cook can continue a strong second half tonight when the
Colorado Rockies visit Turner Field for the opening game of a three-game series against the
Atlanta Braves.
Cook, who was 11-6 with a 3.57 earned run average en route to a berth on the National League All-Star team, is 5-3 in nine starts since, pushing his career-high single-season win total to 16.
He was ripped in his last start, however, allowing 10 hits and six runs in just three innings of a 9-2 loss to San Francisco on September 3.
Cook is 0-1 with a 4.89 ERA in eight career games - six starts - against the Braves.
For Atlanta, first-year National Leaguer Jorge Campillo tries to snap a five- start skid.
The 30-year-old Mexican export was 7-4 after an 11-6 defeat of Arizona on August 8, but has since gone 0-3 with a pair of no-decisions in five starts.
In those outings, the 6-foot-1, 225-pounder has allowed 33 hits and 21 runs in 25 1/3 innings.
Campillo has never faced the Rockies.
On Sunday in Colorado, David Newhan hit a go-ahead RBI triple in a two-run eighth inning as the Houston Astros came back to edge the Rockies, 7-5, in the rubber match of a three-game series at Coors Field.
Brad Hawpe had a pair of hits, including a three-run homer and Matt Holliday had a two-run double for the Rockies, who have dropped six of their last 10 games.
Jorge De La Rosa started for Colorado and was tagged with four runs on six hits over 5 1/3 innings of work. The lefty struck out three, but struggled with his control, issuing four walks. Taylor Buchholz (6-5) gave up two runs in the eighth to take the loss.
In Atlanta, Elijah Dukes' three-run double in the 14th inning put the Nationals on top, and Washington held on for a 7-4 win in the finale of a four-game set.
Chipper Jones went 3-for-6 and drove in two runs for the Braves, who were swept by the last-place Nationals in Washington at the end of August, and then dropped two straight after winning the first two of this series.
Jo-Jo Reyes gave up one run on four hits in six frames for a no-decision, and Jeff Bennett (2-6) gave up Dukes' bases-clearing double in the 14th to take the loss.
Colorado has won three of its four matchups with the Braves this season.
