"It's impossible to minimize the importance of Aaron Cook to the Rockies. He won 16 games last year, pitched in the All-Star Game and was the Opening Day starter. If the Rockies are going to contend, if they are going to make some noise in the National League West, Cook, plain and simple, is going to have to do well.

"I can't overstate it," manager Clint Hurdle said. "He's our guy. He's our ace. You want your No. 1 out there. You want him pitching big games. He knows that. He takes accountability and responsibility every time he takes the mound."

Lately, he had left the mound with more than his share of frustration _ no wins in his first four starts, all games the Rockies lost. What the Rockies saw Wednesday when they played their final game in April was something they have waited and waited for: vintage Aaron Cook, his patented sinker in tow.

He worked a season-high seven innings and came away with his first victory as the Rockies the Padres 7-5 in the rubber game of their three-game series. Cook needed just 78 pitches to sail through six innings.

Hurdle said the lull in the bottom of that inning, when the Rockies sent 10 batters to the plate and scored four runs, might have affected Cook. He gave up a solo homer to Adrian Gonzalez to open the seventh and a two-run, two-out homer to Henry Blanco later in that inning.

Cook wasn't buying the lull-leads-to-mistakes idea put forth by his manager. He was just happy to come away from a 96-pitch outing that included 12 ground ball outs and three strikeouts with the satisfaction that his search for his sinker had ended.

Cook said he and pitching coach Bob Apodaca have worked hard in bullpen sessions the past couple weeks on staying back while going into his delivery to give his arm a chance to catch up with his body when releasing the ball. Not doing that, as Cook knows all too well, means striding too far and not being able to effectively sink the ball.

"I knew once I fixed the mechanical part, things would come back to where they need to be," said Cook, who entered this start 0-1 with an 8.35 ERA.

His work with Apodaca went to the extreme of "even looking at video, which I'm not a big fan of." Cook began to see results in his last start Friday against the Dodgers when he allowed three runs in six innings. Referring to his vaunted sinker Cook said, "I had it a little bit in that Dodger game and had it really good today. Hopefully, that's a sign of things to come."

If the Rockies were looking for positives at the conclusion of an 8-12 April, they were there in abundance with the performances of Todd Helton, Troy Tulowitzki and Chris Iannetta as well as Cook.

Helton (.303) got his average above .300 for the first time this season by going 2-for-3. After lining a double off Padres closer Heath Bell on a 95 mph pitch in the ninth inning Tuesday, Helton, batting cleanup for the first time this season, homered to right-center off Padres starter Ke