Rockies Send Helton Out With a Win

Jeff Francis came out of the bullpen to win his first start in more than three months, Michael Cuddyer won his first batting title, and Todd Helton singled in the final game of his career to help the Colorado Rockies beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 2-1 Sunday.

The NL West champion Dodgers, who lost four of their last five games to finish 92-70, will open the NL division seriess at Atlanta on Thursday.

Colorado (74-88) its their first winning record against the Dodgers since 2007, going 10-9.

Cuddyer went 1 for 5 with three strikeouts and finished the season with a .331 batting average to win the batting title by 10 points over Atlanta’s Chris Johnson, who was held out Sunday to rest his right shoulder.