"The Phillies suffered a 5-1 loss to the Houston Astros on Monday night.

We know what you're thinking:

How in the name of Braulio Castillo can the best team in the majors get beaten so soundly by the worst team in the majors?

Easy when you consider all this:

The Phillies played poor defense behind Roy Oswalt and that contributed to two runs in the fourth inning.

Oswalt hung an ugly 0-2 curveball and Carlos Lee swatted it for a two-run homer the next inning.

And Astros starter Brett Myers changed speeds nicely in pitching a beauty against his old team.

"If you want to know the truth, we got outplayed," manager Charlie Manuel said. "That's the bottom line."

Manuel's club is steaming toward its fifth straight NL East title – the magic number is five – and it has the best record in the majors at 94-50. But that doesn't mean he wants to see his team take its foot off the accelerator with 2½ weeks to go in the regular season. He saw some of that Monday night.

"I thought we played a sloppy game," Manuel said. "That bothered me a lot."

Oswalt also made it clear that he thought his mates played shoddy defense."