The St. Louis Cardinals and Atlanta Braves have seen their respective division-title hopes hampered by recent struggles.

Sending ace Chris Carpenter to the mound should help the Cardinals' odds at mounting a run in the NL Central.

The three-time All-Star looks for another strong performance as St. Louis attempts to extend its winning streak over the Braves to six Friday night in Atlanta.

The Cardinals (73-65) are five games behind Central-leading Cincinnati with just more than three weeks remaining in the regular season. They were alone atop the division as recently as Aug. 13, but tumbled into second place due to an 8-16 stretch.

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Losers of six of eight, the Braves (80-61) are also pursuing the division leader. They're one game behind Philadelphia in the East, though they hold the same lead on San Francisco for the wild card.

"It's tough. But it's not slipped away yet," Atlanta center fielder Nate McLouth said. "We've certainly lost ground, but we're very much in the middle of the playoff hunt. It's better, I guess to have this little swoon now than two or three weeks from now. We've rebounded well all year, and I don't see any reason why we won't now."

St. Louis helped its cause while hurting Atlanta's on Thursday, posting an 11-4 win in the opener of this four-game series.

The Cardinals have won all five games in the season series with the Braves, and seven of nine at Turner Field.

Carpenter (15-5, 2.90 ERA) could help extend that dominance.

The right-hander yielded two runs with 11 strikeouts in 7 1-3 innings of a 4-2 win over the Reds in Sunday.

"We've got to win games, no matter who we're playing," he said.

Carpenter won his only other meeting with the Braves this year, allowing two runs and three hits in six innings of a 5-4 victory April 27.

Carpenter's last two starts at Atlanta have resulted in wins for St. Louis, while he's gone 1-0 with a 3.00 ERA. However, he hasn't pitched at Turner Field since July 30, 2008.

St. Louis' Colby Rasmus has been red hot in September, hitting .458 with two homers and five RBIs in eight games after posting a .128 average with one homer and seven RBIs in his previous 15.

The center fielder was 4 for 4 with two home runs and four RBIs on Thursday, improving to 10 for 14 with three homers and six RBIs in five games against Atlanta this season.

"I just look at it as one game," Rasmus told the Cardinals' official website. "I try not to think about those things as far as being able to do whatever. (Thursday), I just went out there trying to get the ball over the plate and hit it as hard as I could. Whatever happens, happens. I could come out (Friday) and have not quite as good a game."

The Braves will give rookie Mike Minor (3-0, 5.33) his first start against the Cardinals.

The 22-year-old left-hander will try to bounce back from the worst of his five career starts. He was pounded for six runs and nine hits in four innings of a 7-6, 10-inning loss at Florida on Sunday.