Atlanta, GA (My Sportsbook) - Mike Hampton will take the hill for the Braves against his former team tonight, as Atlanta opens a three-game set against the Colorado Rockies at Turner Field.

Hampton, who spent the last two years with the Rockies before being traded to the Braves in the off-season, is 1-1 with a 3.50 ERA in three starts this year. In his last outing, Hampton picked up his first win as a Brave, surrendering just one run and four hits in seven innings of an 11-1 victory over another one of his former clubs - the Houston Astros on Wednesday. The lefthander also struck out two and walked one.

Hampton is 7-3 with a 4.99 ERA in 17 career appearances (14 starts) against the Rockies.

After starting the season at 4-8, the Braves have won seven of eight and 16 of their last 19 games and are atop the NL East, two games ahead of Philadelphia and Montreal. Atlanta beat Arizona twice in 11 innings over the weekend at Bank One Ballpark.

Colorado, which has dropped four of its last five contests, will respond with righthander Aaron Cook, who will make his seventh start of the year. He was pounded in his last outing, Wednesday against Cincinnati at Coors Field, but came away with a no-decision. In that game, Cook surrendered 11 hits and seven runs in three innings. In his last two starts, he has worked just seven innings and has allowed 17 hits and 11 earned runs. Colorado is 1-5 in his six starts this year.

Cook will make his second appearance, and first career start versus the Braves. In his second major league outing, he worked an inning in relief at Turner Field last August 16 without a decision, pitching the final inning in a 4-1 Colorado loss.

Colorado got its nine-game road trip off to a rocky start over the weekend, dropping two of three at Wrigley Field.

Braves shortstop Rafael Furcal is hitting .333 and has reached base safely in his last 14 games. He is batting .400 (22-for-55) in that span.

Gary Sheffield, who missed the entire three-game series versus Arizona to attend the funeral of his wife's grandmother in Chicago, is expected to return for tonight's game. He is hitting a team-best .353 with eight homers and 21 RBI. However, teammate Vinny Castilla is mired in a 3-for-25 slump over his last seven games.

This is the first meeting of the season between the clubs. Atlanta went 4-3 against Colorado last season and has taken six of the last nine in the series.