(Sports Network) - The Philadelphia Phillies shoot for a season-high sixth straight victory tonight as they begin a three-game series with the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium.

The Phillies enter this series having swept the Washington Nationals in three games, earning a fifth straight win for the second time this season. The club also posted five victories in a row from May 25-30.

Philadelphia's up-and-down offense has found some consistency over this current winning streak, as the Phils have outscored their opponents 40-29 over the last five games. More importantly, the club's winning run has it back in first place in the National League East and one game up on the New York Mets, who were idle on Thursday.

Jimmy Rollins hit a two-run homer in Thursday's 8-4 victory over the Nationals to back a strong showing from Kyle Kendrick, who allowed two runs over 6 2/3 innings. Jayson Werth and Shane Victorino had two hits apiece, with Victorino running his hitting streak to 11 games. The outfielder is hitting .383 (18- for-47) over his run with four homers, nine RBI and 11 runs scored.

Ryan Howard also had two hits and drove in a run, his NL-leading 95th RBI of the season. The St. Louis-born Howard is a career .368 batter versus the Cardinals, having blasted 11 homers with 31 RBI in 22 games against them. He is hitting a robust .478 against the Cards this year, with five homers and 14 RBI in six games.

Howard will try to back ace Cole Hamels tonight, with the left-handed hurler coming off his shortest and worst outing this year. Hamels was tagged for nine runs (4 earned) on six hits over just 3 2/3 innings versus the Braves on Saturday, getting a no-decision thanks to his offense.

Hamels hasn't won since July 3 versus the Braves, having posted a loss to the Cardinals and three no-decisions since. He faced St. Louis on July 8 and pitched well, allowing solo homers to Rick Ankiel and Ryan Ludwick over seven innings of a 2-0 loss.

The 24-year-old is 9-6 with a 3.27 earned run average this year and 2-1 with a 3.81 ERA in five career starts versus the Cardinals.

St. Louis had a three-game winning streak end on Thursday with a 9-4 setback to Atlanta, dropping the club five games back of first-place Chicago in the NL Central. Joel Pineiro (3-5) took the loss as he was roughed up for six runs on 10 hits over six innings.

Pineiro did have a run-scoring double, as did Albert Pujols for the Cardinals. Pujols is now hitting an eye-popping .480 (12-for-25) with three homers over a six-game hitting streak. The star first baseman has at least one RBI in each of his last six games as well, totaling 11 in that span.

Like the Phillies, the Cardinals also send one of their top pitchers to the hill tonight who's coming off a bad outing. Kyle Lohse suffered just his third loss of the season on Sunday, allowing seven runs on 11 hits over five innings versus the Mets. The defeat, which dropped Lohse to 12-3 with a 3.68 ERA this year, halted a nine-decision winning streak for the right-hander.

Lohse is 6-1 with a 2.79 ERA in 13 home starts this year and faces his former club for the second time in 2008. The 29-year-old defeated Philadelphia on June 14 after limiting the club to two runs and four hits over eight innings.

Lohse went 3-0 with a 4.72 ERA in 13 games (11 starts) with the Phillies last year and is 1-1 with an outstanding 1.65 ERA in four career starts against them.

These two clubs have split six meetings so far this year, with the Cardinals winning two of three at home from June 13-15.