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Braves slugger Uggla beats Halladay, Phillies

ATLANTA - 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 B

Dan Uggla (right) celebrates with Alex Gonzalez after hitting a home run in the eighth inning. (John Bazemore/AP)
Dan Uggla (right) celebrates with Alex Gonzalez after hitting a home run in the eighth inning. (John Bazemore/AP)Read more

ATLANTA - 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.

"I fell behind, made some close pitches, and then really just left a ball over the plate," said Halladay, who has pitched eight-inning complete games in each of his last two starts, losing both. "Especially there, I felt like we had to challenge him. You don't want to walk the leadoff guy. Obviously, he's been struggling, but he's still a good hitter. It's kind of a catch-22."

In the fourth, Uggla scored from third after a potential inning-ending doubleplay ball deflected off Halladay's glove and into the part of the infield that Jimmy Rollins had just vacated. Rollins said later he thought he would have turned two, and Halladay said the same. But as both men later acknowledged, those things are hard to prevent.

The offensive impotence, on the other hand, is something that Manuel thinks his team can control. Yesterday, he started John Mayberry Jr. in rightfield over Ben Francisco, who entered the day with three hits in his last 32 at-bats. Mayberry drew two walks in his first two plate appearances, then hit a two-run homer against Hudson in the sixth inning. But that was the extent of the Phillies offense. Of the four hits they managed, three came via fill-ins: Mayberry, second baseman Pete Orr, and utility man Michael Martinez, who started in centerfield with Shane Victorino nursing hamstring soreness.

It only gets tougher. The Phillies are 4-5 in games started by pitchers who entered yesterday ranked in the top 20 in the National League in ERA. Those pitchers - Hudson twice, Jurrjens twice, Milwaukee's Shaun Marcum, Florida's Anibal Sanchez, Ricky Nolasco and Josh Johnson, and Arizona's Ian Kennedy - have combined for a 1.58 ERA against them. They are scheduled to face Cardinals lefty Jaime Garcia (5-0, 1.89) tomorrow and Rockies lefty Jorge De La Rosa (5-1, 3.70) on Wednesday and, righty Jhoulys Chacin (4-2, 2.89) on Thursday. Then comes Rangers lefty C.J. Wilson (4-2, 3.36) and righty Alexei Ogando (4-0, 2.06).

"Our hitting's got to pick up; we've got to score more runs," Manuel said. "We're going to find some hitting. We'll get somebody. We'll find people. We'll look until we find somebody. Seriously. That's how I look at it. We'll keep experimenting until we get people."

For more Phillies coverage and opinion, read David Murphy's blog, High Cheese, at www.philly.com/HighCheese.

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