Only to the untrained eye did Sunday's pitching match-up favor the Brewers in a landslide: Jorge Campillo vs. Ben Sheets, four-time All-Star and this year's All-Star Game starter for the National League.

But word of the Braves' secret weapon is getting out, at least among major league clubhouses.

Ben Gray / AJC (ENLARGE)

Jorge Campillo shut out Milwaukee for seven innings.

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Campillo threw seven shutout innings to beat Sheets 5-0 Sunday and snap Sheets' six-start winning streak against the Braves.

"Sitting in the clubhouse watching that last Brewers-Cubs game [Thursday], they mentioned our rotation, and they were more concerned about Campillo and his changeup," said Mark Kotsay, who got Campillo a first-inning lead with an RBI double. "This is a good hitting team. They're aggressive. They like to hit the fastball, and he kept them off-balance all day with the changeup and the slider."

It was the second time in his last three full starts that Campillo pitched seven scoreless innings, not including his rain-shortened start in Philadelphia. He did the same in Florida on July 21 in a 4-0 win.

This time, his efforts prevented a weekend sweep by the Brewers and gave the Braves a lift as they headed for San Francisco. They've won only twice in their last nine games since the opener of the pivotal series in Philadelphia, which turned them from buyers to sellers at last week's trade deadline.

Campillo allowed six hits, but only one for extra bases, and walked none. He out-dueled Sheets for six innings and then made the pitch of the game when Sheets was pinch-hit for in the seventh.

He'd given up a Russell Branyan single and then made one false move, throwing wildly to first on a sacrifice bunt by Gabe Kapler. That put runners at second and third with one out and the Braves up 3-0. He struck out Jason Kendall on five pitches, which brought up Rickie Weeks as a pinch- hitter.

Campillo battled Weeks for seven pitches and froze him for a called strike three on a cutter.

Campillo's right arm shot straight up in celebration, fist clinched. It was about as much emotion as Campillo will ever show.

"I knew he was looking for [something] off-speed, and I wanted to try my front-door cutter," Campillo said.

Campillo, now 6-4, entered the game with a 2.76 ERA, which if he had enough innings to qualify would have ranked fifth in the National League. He finished the game with a 2.58 ERA, which would top Jake Peavy for best in the National League.

This is a pitcher the Braves signed as a minor-league free agent, who'd been given up on by the Mariners after he came back from elbow surgery.

"He's been just outstanding," manager Bobby Cox said. "If we could find a guy like that every year we'd be doing something. He's been just dynamic. I love to watch him pitch. He can carve up a hitter as good as anybody."

His game was over in the seventh after 101 pitches. Jeff Bennett, Will Ohman and Mike Gonzalez followed him to combine for a shutout, the sixth by Braves pitchers this year.

In 90-degree heat, the Braves worked Sheets for 36 pitches in the first inning, thanks in large part to an 11-pitch walk Gregor Blanco drew to lead off the game.

Two batters later, he scored on the double by Kotsay, who'd worked Sheets for nine pitches. Omar Infante scored Kotsay on a double to give Campillo a 2-0 lead.

"On a day like today, that's a big factor in the ballgame, I think, with the heat," Cox said of Sheets' early pitch count.