Worth noting

• Matt Carpenter, hit in the throat with a nasty smash by Ryan Howard on Thursday night, was back in the lineup, hitting leadoff for the second straight day.

"It shocked him a bit, he was wondering how it was going to feel himself," Matheny said. "He came in early, and they ran him through a battery of tests and everything came out clear."

• Molina's two-run double on Thursday night appeared to land barely on the foul side of the right-field line, but not conclusively on replays that didn't zoom close enough to be definitive.

"I think it was fair," smiled the manager. "I didn't see it, but I watched the umpire [Alan Porter] and that's all I needed to see.