Atlanta is seen as the prime challenger to Philadelphia's expected domination of the NL East. This past weekend was the first change for the two playoff teams from last year to go head-to-head and the Phillies landing the opening jab, taking two of three down south.

Any concerns about Philadelphia centers around their bullpen. It was not seen as a deep unit to begin with and the injury to Brad Lidge only accentuated the worry. The relievers were nothing short of outstanding this weekend. Over the three games, seven different relievers combined for 9.2 innings of shutout baseball. So much for the problem of depth in the bullpen.

The Phils also won without a big weekend from the middle of the order. Jimmy Rollins and Ryan Howard are both off to a very solid starts, but neither one really took over a game the last three days. Philly's offensive impact came from the top, where Shane Victorino ate up Atlanta pitching for nine hits and the Phils' got big offensive contributions from their secondary pieces. Carlos Ruiz hit a pinch-hit grand slam to break open a close game Saturday. Brian Schneider hit a two-run shot the same game. Ben Francisco continued what's been a nice start. And the Phils scored 16 runs in three games against a good group of pitchers that included starts by Tim Hudson and Derek Lowe.

But everything with the Phillies this year comes back to starting pitching. Cliff Lee got the weekend off to a less than auspicious beginning. The prize of last year's free-agent market was staked to a 3-0 lead over Hudson on Friday night, but he quickly gave the lead back by the time two innings were done. And before the fourth inning he was gone, as Atlanta moved out to a 6-3 lead. Hudson settled in, worked into the eighth and the Braves won the opener. Roy Oswalt and Cole Hamels stepped in to stabilize things on Saturday and Sunday. Oswalt turned in a solid 6 IP/2 ER outing that had him in the lead and then Ruiz and Schneider's power blew it open. Hamels, after a bad start earlier this week against the Mets, came roaring back with seven shutout innings that beat Lowe 3-0.

While Philadelphia was getting offensive contributions from its secondary players, Atlanta couldn't get anything done on the bottom half of the lineup. Even in Friday's win, it was the top four--Martin Prado, Nate McLouth, Chipper Jones and Brian McCann--that did almost all the damage, combining for nine hits, two walks and five RBIs. For the rest of the series, the entire lineup combined only generated eleven hits. The Braves also had problems with bullpen depth. While Jonny Ventners and Craig Kimbrel closed out Friday's win without incident, the relievers behind them had problems. George Sherrill and Scott Linebrink, veteran setup men brought in to provide the depth, were the culprits in letting Saturday's game get away.

There's a long way to go and even in the head-to-head battle, these teams will still play 15 more times. But if you believe that while Atlanta is good, Philadelphia is better and deeper, this past weekend gave concrete evidence that your belief is correct.

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Dan Flaherty is the editor of the Sports Notebook Family, published through the Real Clear Sports Blog Network, offering daily commentary on baseball . He is the author of The Last New Year's, a book that revisits the historic high points of college football's New Year's Day bowl games.