The Associated Press

ATLANTA - Braves lefty Mike Hampton set a division series record with six straight strikeouts against the Cubs Wednesday night in Game 2 of their best-of-five NL series.

After allowing the first five batters of the game to reach, Hampton and Atlanta were down 2-0. But he struck out Eric Karros, Ramon Martinez and Damian Miller to end the first, then struck out the side in the second. He got Mark Grudzielanek looking for the final out.

Sammy Sosa ended the streak with a single to lead off the third inning for Chicago.

The six straight strikeouts tied the overall postseason record, accomplished three previous times. The most recent was by Todd Worrell of St. Louis in the 1985 World Series against Kansas City.

RATINGS UP: The decision to put the Cubs-Braves game in prime time paid off for Fox Sports. Game 1 of the Chicago-Atlanta series got a 7.5 national rating, a 15 percent increase over the opening night game last year and the highest for a playoff opener since 1999.

While the Yankees have played their first-round playoff games in prime time during the past decade because they are a big TV draw, Fox decided to show the Cubs and Braves on Tuesday night. The decision was made in part because of the national following those teams have and because the Yankees' opponent, the Twins, is not as big a draw.

The Yankees-Twins game was shown by ESPN starting at 1 p.m. and got a 2.56 cable rating. The Marlins-Giants game, showed by ESPN at 4 p.m., got a 3.29 rating.

Last year, Fox got a 6.5 national rating for the Yankees' playoff opener against the Angels. This year's Game 1 was the highest rated since the Rangers-Yankees game in 1999 got a 7.5.

Because there are more homes with televisions today, this year's game was the most-watched Game 1, with an average audience of 10.9 million.

A ratings point on Fox represents 1,067,000 households, or 1 percent of the nation's estimated 106.7 million TV homes. A ratings point on ESPN represents about 870,000 homes.

Fox is in the third year of a $2.5 billion, six-year contract with Major League Baseball.

GILES RESTS: Braves second baseman Marcus Giles was out of the starting lineup Wednesday against Chicago because of a bruised thigh. He was injured in the sixth inning of Game 1, tumbling over first after trying to beat out a grounder and jamming his elbow into his thigh.

Giles was replaced by Mark DeRosa.