Nolasco tries to give Fish back-to-back wins in Colorado

Anibal Sanchez picked up a much-needed personal win on to-back games for the first time since the beginning of the month.

Florida turns to Ricky Nolasco for the finale of a three-game series with the Colorado Rockies, with the starter poised to become the franchise's all-time leader in strikeouts tonight at Coors Field.

Nolasco takes the mound just two strikeouts shy of Dontrelle Willis' club mark of 757. He inched closer to the record in Friday's win over the Giants by fanning four in a 2-1 win.

The right-handed Nolasco is 3-1 over his last four starts with an excellent 1.98 earned run average in that span. He has given up two runs or fewer in nine of his past 10 outings, including last week's win over the Giants when he gave up just one on a solo homer over eight innings. The victory moved Nolasco to 9-8 on the season with a 3.72 ERA in 25 starts.

The 28-year-old has never lost to the Rockies, going 5-0 with a 2.27 ERA in six games, including five starts.

Nolasco will follow up Sanchez's solid outing last night that gave him his first victory in 12 starts. The right-hander gave up three runs -- all on solo homers by Troy Tulowitzki, Seth Smith and Carlos Gonzalez -- with seven strikeouts over eight innings.

"I had a lot of command with my fastball," Sanchez said. "I'm feeling good right now. I'm excited for [win No.] seven.

Bryan Petersen went 3-for-5 with two triples, a run scored and another driven in for Florida, which snapped a three-game losing streak and won for only the second time in 12 games. Mike Stanton added a solo homer for the victors.

Florida hasn't won two straight since a three-game winning streak from July 31-Aug. 2.

Jason Giambi, who hit a walk-off homer in Monday's win, hit Colorado's fourth homer of the game, a two-run shot in the ninth inning, but Leo Nunez settled down to record his 33rd save of the season.

Jhoulys Chacin was pulled after the fourth frame and was charged with five runs on eight hits and three walks.

"He had a lack of command tonight," Colorado manager Jim Tracy said after his team's fifth loss in seven games.

The Rockies will try to avoid their second series loss to the Marlins in 2011 and turn to Aaron Cook, who will try to put what he called an "aggravating" result from last time out behind him.

Cook last pitched on Friday in St. Louis, where he allowed six runs over 5 2/3 innings, yielding nine hits and three walks. Five of those runs came in the fifth inning and left Cook wondering what went wrong.

"They were hitting a lot of balls hard on the ground right in front of the plate, and I came back up here and looked at it," Cook said. "I was making my pitches. There's nothing I would change about tonight, except for the outcome."

The 31-year-old righty has also seen the Rockies score just three runs over his past three starts, resulting in an 0-2 mark for the starter in that span as he has allowed 12 runs over 16 1/3 innings.

Cook is now 2-7 with a 5.43 ERA in 12 starts this year, including an 0-4 mark at home. He is 3-3 with a 5.45 ERA in seven games versus the Marlins in his career.