"You can't beat teams that you don't play, and the Phillies are doing a pretty good job of beating the ones that they do, so do not mistake this for an invalidation of their best-in-the-National-League, 25-14 record. But after a 3-2 loss to the Braves at Turner Field yesterday afternoon, the Phillies are 17-5 against teams that are in last or second-to-last place in their division. On the flip side, they are 7-7 against teams with winning records, including 4-5 against Atlanta, after dropping a second consecutive series to the team that figures to be the top roadblock standing in the way of a fifth straight NL East crown.

After Dan Uggla's leadoff home run in the eighth inning cracked a 2-2 tie against hard-luck loser Roy Halladay, even Charlie Manuel said he was interested to see how his team would respond to its sturdiest test of this young season.

On deck today and tomorrow are the 22-19 Cardinals, who are then followed by the 20-18 Rockies in a two-game series at Citizens Bank Park before a three-game homestand against the 21-19, defending American League champions out of Texas.

It is tough to say that 1 week can overshadow the accomplishments of the previous month and a half, but you get the feeling that the next seven games will tell Charlie Manuel more about his team than he learned over the course of the first 39. Or, rather, more than he learned in the first 30, because the Phillies head to St. Louis after nine consecutive games against the Braves and Marlins, a stretch that revealed just how difficult the competition in the NL East will be.

"When we first started that last homestand and started playing Atlanta and Florida, that started it," Manuel said. "We are going to see winning teams for a while. We'll see how we can play."

Despite the track record of Manuel's rotation, and despite the success it has had thus far, Atlanta has provided no reason to doubt its ability to match up against the best the Phillies have to offer. Yesterday, it was Tim Hudson pitching through a groin injury to hold them to two runs in seven innings. On Saturday, it was Jair Jurrjens allowing three runs in 7. In the Phillies' last nine games against the Braves, they are 0-4 against Jurrjens and Hudson. They have yet to score a run against Braves closer Craig Kimbrel, who pitched a scoreless ninth to record his third save against them this season, and haven't fared much better against lefty setup man Jonny Venters, who handled the eighth.

Of course, the Braves team that finished six games behind the Phillies last season was thick on pitching. The difference this season is the presence of a slugger like Uggla, who scored all three of Atlanta's runs. The one run that will stick with Halladay came on a 3-2 cutter that caught more of the plate than he would have liked, resulting in a home run that Uggla drove over the wall in left-center for the game-winner."