Phillies-Cardinals: What you need to know

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Phillies (24-23) at Cardinals (25-20)
7:15 p.m. on FOX

The Phillies moved back above the .500 mark on Friday, after defeating the Cardinals for the second night in a row.

Cliff Lee battled command issues for seven innings, but kept the Phils in the game and left with the score tied 3-3. He allowed eight hits, walked three and struck out seven. The lefty still does not have a win this season.

Hunter Pence jacked a two-run homer in the top of the 10th inning that propelled the Phils to a 5-3 victory.

Starting pitchers
Kyle Kendrick (0-4, 5.23 ERA) will take the mound for the Phillies. Kendrick last pitched on Monday against Washington. He threw seven innings, and gave up just two runs on five hits. The Phils failed to give him any run support and the right-hander was charged with a 2-1 loss.

Kendrick will be opposed by Jaime Garcia (3-2, 3.55 ERA). Garcia has posted a 1.88 ERA with 16 strikeouts in 14 13 innings over his last two outings after recording a 7.71 ERA in his first two starts in May.

Head-to-head
The Phillies are 2-0 against the Cardinals so far this season.

Kendrick has a 4-1 record, along with a 3.38 ERA, in five career starts against the Cards.

Slugger Matt Holliday is just 2 for 14 lifetime off of Kendrick and catcher Yadier Molina is 2 for 11 with a double.

Garcia has been dominant in his career against the Phils, posting a 2-0 record and 0.96 ERA in four starts.

Jimmy Rollins owns a .091 average (1 for 11) off of Garcia and Pence has just three hits in 15 at-bats against the lefty.
Storylines
Juan Pierre reached base four times on Friday. He drove in the tying run and scored the go-ahead run after leading off the 10th with a single one batter before Pence's home run.

The Phils improved to 20-6 when scoring at least four runs, but are just 4-17 when scoring three or fewer runs.

After closing out Friday's game, Jonathan Papelbon has 14 saves in 14 attempts this season.

Molina has improved his season average to .316 after batting .429 over his last seven games for the Cards.

Note of interest
Pence's homer snapped an 0 for 13 skid at the plate.

Sound off
After scoring 15 runs in the first two games of their series with the Cardinals, do you think the Phillies have finally found their offensive stride?
The Associated Press contributed to this reportE-mail Tim Riday at triday@comcastsportsnet.com

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