Atlanta ? Mike Hampton is pitching so well he doesn’t even mind returning to Colorado.

Hampton won his eighth in a row, allowing only four hits in eight innings as Atlanta bounced back from a rare shutout with a 6-1 victory Monday over Arizona.

Robert Fick broke out of a slump with three RBIs, Marcus Giles homered and drove in two runs, and Gary Sheffield extended his hitting streak to 22 games with a homer.

Hampton (11-5) is 8-0 in his last nine starts, and he’s been especially dominant in the past three appearances. The left-hander followed his first complete game of the season with two straight eight-inning stints, surrendering just 12 hits and three earned runs in 25 innings.

“He’s been lights out,” Fick said. “He’s turned it around, he’s throwing strikes and he’s getting a lot of groundballs. I wouldn’t want to face him.”

Hampton lowered his ERA to 4.04 — quite a change from last year. He had the highest ERA (6.15) among qualifying starters during the last of two miserable seasons with Colorado.

His next start comes Saturday at Coors Field.

“I have every intention of pitching well there,” said Hampton, who was traded to the Braves during the offseason after flopping in the Mile High City. “I’m going to go in there with a confident mind frame that we’re going to win.”

The Diamondbacks noticed the change from last season.

Atlanta's Robert Fick watches his double down the right-field line. The Braves defeated Arizona, 6-1, Monday in Atlanta. Arizona catcher Rod Barajas is at left.

“His cutter is a lot sharper this year,” manager Bob Brenly said. “That’s always been his bread-and-butter pitch. Last year, for mechanical problems or whatever, he lost that pitch. It was very sharp today.”

Sunday the Braves had only two hits and struck out 15 times in a 2-0 loss to the Diamondbacks. The NL’s highest-scoring team finished off the four-game series with a more typical performance.

Two batters into the game, the Braves were ahead on Giles’ RBI double against Miguel Batista. Fick added an RBI single before the inning was done.

In the third, Giles walked and Chipper Jones singled before Fick came to bat with two outs. He worked the count full, then fouled off four straight pitches before lining a double down the right-field line on the 11th pitch of the at-bat. Both runners scored to give the Braves a 4-0 lead.

Fick came into the game mired in a 7-for-47 slump.

“I was really just battling up there,” he said. “I’ve not been swinging the bat too well, so I just wanted to keep my stroke short. I got lucky.”

The East-leading Braves won three of four from the Diamondbacks, hurting Arizona’s playoff chances.

Mets 8, Rockies 0

New York — Steve Trachsel pitched his third career one-hitter, allowing only a sixth-inning double to pitcher Chin-Hui Tsao as New York swept the four-game series.

Trachsel (12-7) retired the first 17 batters before Tsao lined a ball over center fielder Timo Perez’s head. Perez was playing shallow against Tsao, who was 0-for-8 in his career before the hit.

The only other baserunner against Trachsel came in the ninth when Greg Norton reached on an error. The play was originally ruled a hit but later changed to an error.

Mike Piazza and Jason Phillips hit two-run homers off Tsao (2-1) for the last-place Mets.

Expos 4, Giants 0

Montreal — Javier Vazquez pitched a three-hitter for his first shutout in nearly two years as Montreal completed a season sweep of San Francisco.

San Francisco finished 0-7 against Montreal overall, the first time in the franchise’s 121-year history it was swept in a season series involving more than three games according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

Vazquez (11-8) struck out seven and walked three for his sixth career shutout — his first since Aug. 28, 2001.

The six-game losing streak is the Giants’ longest since 2000. San Francisco still leads the NL West by 81/2 games over Arizona.